The tangled web of deception John Ensign wove

[babylonsister]

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2009/aug/05/tangled-web-deception-john-ensign-wove/


The tangled web of deception John Ensign wove

By Jon Ralston (contact)

Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2009 | 2:01 a.m.


In mid-February 2008, shortly after the God-fearing men of C Street confronted him about his affair with a staff member, Sen. John Ensign returned to Nevada.

It was Presidents Day weekend and the senator had some business to attend to — he had to find a job for his administrative assistant, aka his lover’s husband, so he could get him out of Washington, D.C. So Ensign asked his top political operative, Mike Slanker, if he would give Doug Hampton a place to hang his shingle at Slanker’s company, November Inc. Slanker, who was then helping Ensign run the National Republican Senatorial Committee, agreed to help Hampton, whose wife, Cynthia, was having an affair with the senator.

Slanker knew nothing of those sordid details that Presidents Day weekend 18 months ago, but he soon would. Only a few weeks after he had agreed to hire Hampton, Darlene Ensign, the senator’s wife, called Slanker and let him know about the affair. Shortly thereafter, in the chairman’s office of the NRSC, Slanker confronted Ensign about the affair with Doug Hampton sitting there. With Ensign’s blessing, Slanker had agreed to hire Hampton in a few months, but the senator had deceived him as to why Hampton was leaving D.C. and why Ensign was so desperate to get him a job.

Just when you thought it was seamy enough, just when you thought the story of a senator having an affair with a staff member whose husband was a good friend and top aide was scandalous enough, just when you thought the senator getting dad to pay off the couple to assuage his guilt was creepy enough, now that the actual time line is unfolding, the story actually gets worse.

Worse, that is, for the stonewalling senator, who has refused to answer any questions about his less-than-believable explanation for the $96,000 the Hamptons received. Worse now, thanks to this time line Slanker and Hampton confirm, for a manipulative narcissist who now appeared to be willing to put two longtime loyal operatives and their business at risk to try to cover his tracks. And, in the worst interpretation of it, Ensign used Slanker and his wife, Lindsey, then the top finance person for the NRSC, to get Hampton out of the way so he could continue to pursue his wife.

And John Ensign thinks he should remain a U.S. senator and should run for reelection? He can still talk, as he did in announcing his opposition to Sonia Sotomayor, about protecting the “sanctity of the Constitution,” when “sanctity” is a word that anyone with shame would have at this point voluntarily excised from his vocabulary.

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http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2009/aug/05/tangled-web-deception-john-ensign-wove/

[TexasObserver]

1. Recommend ... because this A hole needs to resign.

[waiting]

2. He should resign

and apologise to his constituents for his selfish, and immoral behavior. And then the Family should be investigated by a special prosecutor to see how many more people they have paid hush money to or secured new jobs for. This is truly a scandal that has layer upon layer of stinking facts.

[DCKit]

3. But it's only "BAD" when (D)s do it.

Dig through the stack and you'll find the memo.