Tom Harkin calls for Ensign to resign

[malaise]

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0510/36663.html
<snip>
Sen. John Ensign is facing an increasingly uncertain future in the Senate, with a senior Democrat saying that the Nevada Republican should resign if allegations against him are true and other senators mulling the possibility of public hearings into his extramarital affair with a former staffer.

“If it is true that indeed he did make these payoffs and all that kind of stuff, then I would think the honorable thing would be to resign,” Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) said in an interview.

Harkin added that he doesn’t “like the smell” of a sex scandal that has “cast a bad image on the Senate.”

Harkin’s public declaration — the first of its kind by a sitting senator — comes as Ensign’s Senate colleagues stand to make life more difficult for him.

The bipartisan Senate Ethics Committee is not ruling out holding public hearings in the case, a move that some believe could help drive Ensign from office. A number of senators signaled to POLITICO they’d be supportive of seeing Ensign sit before a public forum to address the allegations, something that has not been done since the Keating Five scandal in 1991.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0510/36663.html#ixzz0mrtqO75b
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[secondwind]

1. looks like Ensign is toast.

[malaise]

3. He's toast

he couldn't want that public hearing.

They're discussing this on JoeScum so you know this is massive.

JoeScum is trying to spin this big time.

[Flubadubya]

11. No, of course, Joe "doesn't like the smell of scandal" either...

having been so close to his own that he was a little singed... just too bad he didn't became "toast" too! :puke:

[babylonsister]

2. Just a little salt, please.

:popcorn:

[malaise]

5. Watch JoeScum on this one now n/t

[babylonsister]

4. scabby's all outraged about Harkin's timing. Yes, this should have

happened a year ago, but better late than never.

[malaise]

6. It couldn't happen before the investigations

Fuck Joe Scum

[babylonsister]

8. Then he has nothing to complain about, but that won't stop him. nt

[Ian David]

7. No!!! He should run for re-election! Stay, Ensign! Fundraise! Campaign! Primary! n/t

[rurallib]

13. Campaign for Sue Lowden also!

Sex scandal and chicken barter! What a great pair of senators Nevada could have.

[SpiralHawk]

9. "But, but, but...I'm a republicon." - Sen. John Ensign (R)

"Have you forgotten that there are Special Rules for republicons? We are the people of the Wide Stance. We just don't do responsibility, or honor, or ethics. So sit down and STFU."

- Sen. John Ensign (R)

[mikelgb]

10. Note that this is Tom Harkin, not John Cornyn or Mitch McConnell

[spanone]

12. if he were a democrat he would have apologized and resigned by now

[jberryhill]

14. "he doesn’t “like the smell” of a sex scandal"

Hmmph... that's about the only part of a sex scandal worth liking.

Well, that and the sex.