In D.C., some worry Ensign saga is not over

[babylonsister]

Bring. It. On!


In D.C., some worry Ensign saga is not over
Reid and McConnell, meanwhile, stop short of showing public support

By Lisa Mascaro (contact)

Wednesday, July 15, 2009 | 2 a.m.


Washington — The story of Republican Sen. John Ensign’s affair has entered an uneasy space in the Capitol, as the shock over the revelation that his parents paid the woman’s family has subsided, but colleagues and supporters remain nervous that the story is not over.

Ensign told the Las Vegas Sun this week that he plans to remain in office and to seek reelection in 2012, suggesting that his peers and Senate leaders on both sides of the political aisle have encouraged him to stand tall.

Yet when asked Tuesday whether he would support those efforts, the Senate’s Republican leader, Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, again declined to throw his support to the one-time member of his leadership team.

“I think Sen. Ensign will have to speak to those issues himself,” McConnell said when asked by the Sun. It was the second time in less than a week that McConnell had sidestepped such questions.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has spoken to Ensign, but his spokesman said Reid believes “this is Ensign’s own personal decision to make.” The two senators have an agreement not to criticize each other publicly.

At a dinner meeting of Republican Party activists in Las Vegas this week, no member of the party’s central committee called for a formal rebuke or censure of Ensign.

The party has a shallow bench in Nevada, and Ensign has long been the most popular elected official in the state. He might ride out the scandal much the way Republican Sen. David Vitter of Louisiana has been able to prepare for his reelection in 2010 just a short time after the conservative lawmaker admitted having visited a prostitute.

That is, unless the Ensign story continues.

“There’s a nervousness that maybe the full story has not been told,” said a Republican strategist from Nevada. “Most people think there’s another shoe to drop.”

more...

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2009/jul/15/dc-some-worry-ensign-saga-not-over/

[saltpoint]

1. At this point in the game we don't know if that other shoe is about

to drop. But any combination of events that would remove John Ensign from the U.S. Senate would be met with cheers at my house.

I never liked him in the first place and as his "presidential star" moved across the horizon, I found I liked him even less.

[babylonsister]

4. Something hopefully will 'give', because it seems he won't.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=6064830&mesg_id=6064830

Ensign plans to run for re-election

[saltpoint]

5. Yes. Those desert Republicans are a recalcitrant bunch.

If new news tumbles down that embarrasses him even more, his fellow Republicans are going to abandon him a lot more publicly.

The McConnell comment might mean they already know about the second shoe.

[babylonsister]

7. I don't quite understand how they get away with it myself.

Vitter is a perfect example. And poor ole Larry Craig. Was his demise because a woman wasn't involved? :shrug: So being unfaithful with woman=AOK, with man=not so much?

[saltpoint]

8. Good question. I have no idea. Voters seem more forgiving of GOP

transgressions than of Dems'.

I want to blame skewed coverage and bias by the media, but that's probably not realy the whole story.

Puzzlin' evidence.

[Jim Lane]

12. The distinction between Craig and Vitter/Ensign isn't principle, just expediency

The Republicans could freely let Craig know that he shouldn't run for re-election, because in conservative Idaho they were sure to hold the seat anyway.

Vitter and Ensign, on the other hand, are more important to the Republicans. If either resigned, or even declined to seek re-election, his replacement on the Republican ticket would be significantly weaker in vote-getting power. (Note the linked article's reference to the Republicans' "shallow bench" in Nevada.)

Republicans -- including, ironically, Ensign himself -- were happy to get on their high moral horses about Craig because he was expendable.

[JerseygirlCT]

20. I think that's definitely part of it. But I also think homophobia

was part of it, too.

There's still something of the boys will be boys attitude toward men unfaithful with women. Mess around with another man, though...

[Cha]

18. He should lose on hypocricy alone..

"Ensign has been among the harsher critics of other lawmakers who have had affairs, calling on President Bill Clinton to resign over the Monica Lewinsky scandal and more recently trying to push out former Sen. Larry Craig, the Republican who declined to seek reelection in Idaho after pleading guilty to disorderly conduct after his arrest on charges that he sought sex from a plainclothes police officer in a men’s room at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport."

[madmom]

13. I knew there was another shoe to drop, but I didn't know the guy was a centipede. I saw this comment

some where ,possibly here, and thought it appropriate.

[dgibby]

17. Thanks!

That's what I said about Sanford. Glad you liked it! With the repubs, it's like Imelda Marcos' closet instead of Pandora's Box.:fistbump: :rofl:

[madmom]

19. Glad to know for sure where to credit it. Yes they do keep on giving don't they. : P

[Captain Hilts]

2. That he's too radioactive for McConnell is very telling. He's toast.

[MadHound]

3. Well, the Dems probably won't help,

They won't give Ensign that shove that is needed to get rid of him, because doing something like investigating C Street and the Family would expose members of their party who also are deeply entwined in that theocracy loving organization.

I imagine that Ensign will quietly fade away, probably won't be reelected, and the C Street folks will continue their mission to turn American into a theocratic state.

[LynneSin]

10. If anything Dems want him running for re-election

Let's make this an easy democratic pickup next election.

[Wetzelbill]

6. Ensign made a series of dumb moves here

It wouldn't surprise me if he made another one. First the affair. Getting her son a policy job. That horrid letter. The payoffs. What a bonehead. Sanford messed up but he didn't put forth a series of stupid moves like this guy has. Amazing what he thought he could get away with.

[LynneSin]

9. Don Sherwood, PA-10, tried running for re-election after he was caught beating his mistress....

He figured his district was overwhelmingly republican enough that he could just plea he was sorry and the voters would embrace him.

Not only was he beat overwhelmingly in 2006 by Chris Carney, but in 2008 another republican could not unseat him.

Point is, RUN ENSIGN RUN.

Thing I learned with PA-10 is that one's faith was much stronger than one political ties. See, that district is very religious too and they don't take to keenly on cheating husbands.

[rocktivity]

11. (A GOP) strategist from Nevada (says,) “Most people think there’s another shoe to drop.”

TRANSLATION: This strategist KNOWS that there's another shoe that can drop!

:headbang:
rocktivty

[xultar]

14. 96k from the bluehairs another 25k severance. Something big is lurking.

[Cha]

15. Yeah, stand tall, ensign..maybe no one will notice

you're a fucking weasel bloated with hypocricy.

[Cha]

16. One thing about this from reader further

into the story is..ensign can't really criticize Reid now, can he?