Republican Senator Ensign admits affair

[jdobbin]

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/afp/090616/usa/...s_nevada_affair

Nevada Senator John Ensign, a rising star of the Republican Party regarded as a possible contender in the 2012 presidential election, admitted an extra-marital affair here Tuesday.

Ensign, 51, a staunch conservative with a record of strong family-values stances, vowed to remain in office after describing the affair as "absolutely the worst thing I've ever done in my life" at a news conference.

I wonder if this will affect his presidential ambitions.

He was the most conservative Senator in the U.S.

[KrustyKidd]

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/afp/090616/usa/...s_nevada_affair

I wonder if this will affect his presidential ambitions.

He was the most conservative Senator in the U.S.

I wouldn't vote for him. He throws his woman under the bus he'll do it to his own party, country and values too.

[kimmy]

I'm personally never really that shocked when something like this happens.

I had never heard of this man before.

If "family values" is the only thing he has going for his political career, then this should kill his aspirations of reaching higher, and deservedly so.

If he has a track record as a legislator that has merit, then hopefully this doesn't put an end to it.

I don't believe that "family values" should elevate pointless people into positions of power, and I don't believe that personal failings should ruin the careers of worthy people. I make no claim of knowing which sort of person Mr Ensign is.

I quickly scanned his wikipedia entry and among the predictable positions one would expect, I also found this...

Eminent domain

Ensign has become a leading voice against the Kelo v. New London Supreme Court ruling, and introduced a bill that would blunt the effects of the ruling.[11] In Kelo, the Court ruled that local governments could use eminent domain not just for public use but for any project that involves a public purpose. Specifically, the Court permitted the City of New London, CT to force a homeowner to sell her home for a parking lot for a new development of private, big box stores. The use of governmental condemnation for a private purpose caused a backlash.

To me, that sounds like a valuable contribution to the law of the land. Perhaps it is a clue that he has other valuable contributions to make, and if that is the case then it would be unfortunate if marital infidelity ended his political career.

-k

[Shady]

I wonder if this will affect his presidential ambitions.

Probably negitively.

He was the most conservative Senator in the U.S.

No he wasn't.

[KrustyKidd]

I don't believe that "family values" should elevate pointless people into positions of power, and I don't believe that personal failings should ruin the careers of worthy people. I make no claim of knowing which sort of person Mr Ensign is.

I certainly don't either. And, to me, it has zero to do with 'family values.' If he were single and a former porn star it would matter little however, this man is a rat who cheated on his wife with the wife of a friend. (Unless of course, it was by mutual consent in a swapping sort of thing which I doubt it was.)

Anyways, if one can be dishonest to those closest to you, then you certainly can be dishonest to people you don't even know. So, when all things are equal, vote for the person who has not proven they are a dishonest rat like this .

[jdobbin]

No he wasn't.

He wasn't ranked most conservative?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090617/ts_al...icsnevadaaffair

Last year, Ensign was rated the most conservative US senator by the National Journal magazine and led the unsuccessful charge in 2007 to force Idaho Senator Larry Craig to resign from office after Craig was caught in a gay sex sting operation.

That looks like number 1 to me.

http://www.nationaljournal.com/njmagazine/...090228_4726.php

You think that the National Journal is wrong?

You think someone else is more conservative?

[Guthrie]

"Last year I had an affair. I violated the vows of my marriage. It is the worst thing I have ever done in my life."

-- Senator John Ensign

"I came to that conclusion recently, and frankly it's because of what he has put the country through. He has no credibility left."

-- Ensign, on why he decided to ask for Bill Clinton to resign over the Lewinsky affair

just more right-wing hypocrisy --- they have always been big on those old children's schoolyard squabbling techniques such as accusing one's opponent first in hopes that the first thrown clump of mud will be enough distraction that one's own dirt won't be noticed --- a strategy used by all fascist govts. from Mussolini to Franco

I suggest Ensign sees his dilemma as having been exposed for the one thing he cannot cover up nor buck-pass. Personal moral failures are not policy -- failed policy is something the extreme right wing always attempt to put off on opponents - as if they had nothing to do with their own failures. e.g. Currently, there are other right wingers attempting to blame Obama for Bush's Depression- as if Obama had run up debt (as pathetic a lie as one might imagine)