“The effort to pass a constitutional amendment reaffirming marriage as being between a man and a woman only is being undertaken strictly as a defense of marriage against the attempt to redefine it and, in the process, weaken it,” Ensign said. “Marriage is an extremely important institution in this country and protecting it is, in my mind, worth the extraordinary step of amending our constitution.”
Sadly, America didn’t listen, and now look what we made him do:
Republican Sen. John Ensign of Nevada has admitted he had an extramarital affair with a member of his campaign staff.
Ensign told said in a statement, "I deeply regret and am very sorry for my actions."
An aide in Ensign’s office said the affair took place between December 2007 and August 2008, with a campaign staffer who was married to an employee in Ensign’s Senate office. Neither have worked for the senator since May 2008. The aide spoke on condition of anonymity.
When Ensign reconciled with his wife, the sources said, he gave the aide a severance package and parted ways.
Whatever the nitpicky little details of the timing or how long Republican donors were paying Ensign’s mistress, I think it’s obvious that this never would have happened if the gays hadn’t loosened the holy bonds of marriage by, uh, getting married. Not even a Promise Keeper could keep it together with all that redefinition going on around him.
Which is precisely why Ensign is not a hypocrite for having an affair ten years after demanding Clinton’s resignation and saying he had "no credibility left" for doing considerably less: There were no gay marriages back then! Clinton didn’t have to fend off the insidious anti-opposite-marriage gay rays, and yet he strayed anyway! Shameful!
Bill Clinton: criminal. John Ensign: martyr.
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Ensign couldn’t control his *staff*.
Got it.
KO and Rachel report that Obama will extend insurance and other rights to gay federal employees tomorrow.
Harry Reid, smelling blood in the water, invites co-Nevadan Ensign to
participate inchair a bipartisan health care working session.That video cracks me up
excellent
Today’s episode of “IOKIYAR”*
*(It’s Okay If You Are a Republican)
Did anybody else notice the (probably) unintentional note of irony in Palin’s acceptance of the Letterman apology?
Evolve? Really, governor?
John Ensign: hypocrite.
OK, as a Republican that’s kind of redundant.
Yea, and she dresses like a two dollar hooker.
I know I *should* have used the clip of Ensign’s statement, but it would have just made people cranky…
The Rs won’t condemn him – they are probably envious and think he must be a real stud.
Oy!
thank eli!
Ensign and Hapless Harry are such buds. It will be interesting to see how Harry ignores the story going forward.
IIRC Harry wasn’t (didn’t?) going to help find anyone to challenge Ensign.
I guess this news didn’t stay in Vegas.
I hear Enzyte is actually distilled from his pineal gland. That’s why they named it after him.
Dude got over on his wife, disposed of that pernicious wench he was banging, and the cuckolded spouse took a powder – all good, John. High-Fives in the cloak room.
Most of them are adulterers too. Fidelity is a rare trait in the corridors of power, which is what made their histrionics back in the ’90s particularly galling.
Lorena Bobbitt “package severance ”?
as if we weren’t already cranky.
Obama throws the gays under the bus along with the pro-choice religious activists and then backs up over us again and again.
And then there’s the supplemental and that sweet Grahamcracker-Liarman provision that will be tacked onto something, anything.
No, not cranky here.
cutting observation.
Wait. I thought that *was* Ensign in the video.
I’m pretty sure that’s not a press conference, tho.
Oh, cut it out!
So, Bobbit “cutting” references are ok but. . . .
Probably, since organ-grinders have fallen out of fashion.
Well, as long as we are discussing Palin and Letterman…
(blogwhore!)
ouch. Getting a bit testy here.
…now headlining at the Las Vegas MGM Gland.
I’m glad to see there were some counter-demonstrators.
Chuck Todd coming up on Rachel to explain the extension of benefits.
The pictures don’t show how hilarious the red-haired guy was. He infiltrated the main demonstration, screaming that Letterman was worse than Hitler. Dude was a star.
That was a huge mistake.
Not Ball State University?
some how I think it will be too little too late.
Blogwhoring?
Yah, he provided the opportunity and got played like a fiddle.
The rough strokes sound like what Hillary instituted over at State.
I realize that many here are very unhappy with everything he’s done and not done.
So if Ensign’s member had not been so upright, he would have been a more upright member? That about the size of it?
Apologizing. He had to know what attracted attention-whores, since he had one climbing his fence for years.
Only if it were high caliber.
It was hard to tell from the photo if it was intended as parody, wingnuts tending to wear their lunacy like a badge of honor.
I hadn’t made that connection. I think I will be stealing that.
Do we know he was upright? He might have dropped in.
Yes, very disturbing.
Actually the Letterman stalker was a seriously ill woman who ended up throwing herself under a train. Probably not an apt comparison.
Apologizing for blogwhoring: even bigger mistake.
Like, more than 2 bucks? Sorry, couldn’t help myself.
Yes, sadly. But before she took her own life, she did it for the press.
Which is exactly how David got played this time.
Is THAT what Harry Truman was referring to with his “The buck stops here?”
the shafting sins of DC are perilous.
The only time I apologize for blogwhoring is one of the threads where I know Suzanne is modding ….
In its Politically Connected list of stories, Mpls Strib story headline reads “biographical information on Sen. John Ensign”
Sure enough it is biographical information on Sen. John Ensign. Reader who haven’t seen the l’affaire story are likely to think he died.
Many a ship of state lies crashed on the bedrocks of Democracy.
The rank of Ensign [was] abolished in the US Army in the year 1800.
Is Ensign a Mormon?
Not everything. But speaking for myself (I’m not into the “some say” or “many feel” thing), he’s screwed up on things that are VERY important to me. Appointing a faith based council that has 20% of it’s membership pro-choice and then appointing a strident no-choice person to head the faith-based neighborhood partnership with HHS that oversees the budget for family planning; Defending DOMA with language that only a right winger could love (and will use over and over again) continuing if not enhancing the policies of secrecy from the last crooks in the WH; putting the foxes in charge of the financial hen house . . . that’s enough for now. Yes I’m unhappy though not surprised.
He’s made some great speeches and done a lot to repair our image around the world so far. Health care will remain a mystery until the details come out and make it through the sausage making process.
Is he better than McShame would have been? Of course. But he’s not living up to the promises he himself has made. Transparency? Feh.
Oh I’ sue those hair extensions cost a lot more than 2 dolla.
LOL!
It was actually a snide reference to a post that was deleted because. . .just because.
ok, good night
2 bucks chuck? Here? I dunno.
This is all weird.
And, David can do whatever he wants. It just cracks me up to hear people thinking they know what is right and wrong.
But, on the other hand, see, there’s always something else. One just never knows. Do one?
That’s pretty much exactly how I feel. On the executive power/transparency issues, it looks a lot like he got into office and decided, hey, this Bush stuff isn’t half bad! Then again, maybe he coveted it from the start, and denounced it as a means to obtain it.
COngressional directory says he’s a “Christian.” No further denominational info.
Hapless Harry is a Mormon.
Wiki says “International Church of the Foursquare Gospel”
Protestant, according to this source.
ack, keyboard acting up again. “I’m sure those hair extensions cost a lot more than 2 dollar….”
Any relation to International Harvester?
Gotta turn upside down and shake out the Cheeto resins occasionally…:-)
How would I know, then? I just can’t keep up.
That translates to fundamentalist.
“International Church of the Foursquare Gospel”
or the breakaway tetherball faction?
He’s also active in Promise Keepers. blegh
Foursquare Gospel = Pentecostal — Aimee Semple McPherson
Tent revival time.
Punaise, lotsa working material….
Wonder if the guy speaks in tongues?
Knew there was an explanation.
Consistent with the “Promise Keeper” affiliation Eli pointed out. “Promise Keepers” aka chauvinist Assholes R Us.
more like the promise breakers
well, as I was just saying to my colleague: sema-hubaduh goosh-goosh, ahxk!
Like David said, there’s a difference between perception and intention. I try not to lump every one of any particular affiliation into the same BS category. Keep the faith. As easy as it is to become 100% cynical, as long as there is breath, there is hope.
Okay, sue me.
The Promise Keepers fancy themselves cock of the roost but it seems like this one laid an egg.
Too much cock, not enough roost.
Did he drag his wife out for her humiliation moment?
I don’t think so. I didn’t see her in that clip, anyway.
of course. Don’t they all?
from Salon:
“I deeply regret and am sorry for my actions,” Ensign said in a statement given to reporters. His wife, Darlene, is standing by him — in a statement of her own, she said, “With the help of our family and close friends our marriage has become stronger.” She added, “I love my husband.”
She probably was at home wearing her burka and knitting.
I’ve always wanted to see a Washington wife act like a real person and start throwing his clothes out the window during the press conference.
My understanding of fundamentalism is that they feel they are 100% correct and there is not room for understanding of others. To be right, one has to make the other wrong.
I think it works the same on both sides.
As long as I’m not wearing others shoes, I’ll prefer not to presume to know what they are thinking all the time. And, not know what they are ALL thinking or doing.
Compassion is a two way street.
Awww, man… no class but then the press has less than none (is that possible outside of quantum mechanics?). If she hadn’t shown they’d have been pulling O’Lielly ambushes on her.
Then set the pile in the yard on fire.
I’m not sure she was physically there. It says she’s standing *by* him, not beside him.
Fucking resign, douchebag.
And take that loser Harry Reid with you.
What is wrong with these women?
Am I to understand that all young women authorized Sarah Palin to speak on their behalf?
I thought that was required.
It was her reference to evolution that floored me. What about Jeebus riding the dinosaur?
Ha! He hadn’t a clue.
I read it the same way but there just had to be the statement. Is it only public officials who have to have their wives do the public bit? Does the country club jock drag his wive up before the entire club to say he’s sorry for banging the girl in the pro shop?
we know that won’t happen. IOKIYAR.
Ah seen Jeebus ridin’ a dinosaur. It was right after ah left the Quarterdeck Lounge on Treasure Island. About 3:30am. Glowin’ to all getout. Jeebus an’ the dinosaur, that is.
You know this story shines a light on a very nice angle for defenders of gay marriage to take when confronted with religious conservative haters:
Simply point to the gaping holes in the sanctity of traditional marriages (cheating, beating, divorce). Ask why they aren’t focusing on those issues in their congregations-the Bible doesn’t like that stuff. What are you doing, for instance, to combat the rising divorce rate-God doesn’t like divorce etc.
It seems this would drive the unwary into a trap where they may say something like “well marriage and divorce are legal things and we separate them from God’s law”- and then you would, well, have them.
Palin probably can’t keep track of all six days. She’ll never figure out evolution.
Marriage can be a good thing. So let’s not only protect it, let’s extend it to more people. Why can’t they get that?
“…with a campaign staffer who was married to an employee in Ensign’s Senate office.” Was the employee female? That would really top it off.
Didja get his autograph?
The timing of this is just swell. Both the cuckolded husband (if it wasn’t a swinging three-way) and the adultress left Ensign’s employment in May 2008, but the affair lasted until August of that year. How does that work, exactly?
“You and your wife are fired, but I want to continue to bang her for a coupla more months”
Or:
“I quit, and so does my wife, whom you may continue to bang for three more months if there is sufficient severance pay, Senator”
Or:
“Get those two outta my sight, John — you can keep the side action, but I don’t want to see them around my husband’s office, ever”
Naw, couldn’t find a pen.
Atheists can be every bit as fundamentalist in their attitudes as can be Christians, Muslims or Jews. You are right in your assessment. There is only one way to the truth and you have and “with us or against us” attitude.
PS was right @74. The Foursquare Gospel church came out of Aimee Semple McPherson’s revival movement. I don’t know that she herself was all about what it became. But that was before my time.
I think we can readily surmise that Ensign’s activities would be frowned upon by his church and his colleagues will do their best to change the subject. Had it been a dem it would be the only thing the press would obsess over despite all of the big stories happening around us.
Doesn’t seem like he should require one.
You are using logic. Logic does not apply when a Conservative shits in the middle of the room.
There is always a “good reason” for dogma to be included/excluded where convenient to support/disprove a religious argument. Some of the Old Testament writings that call for murder, for example, “were meant for earlier peoples” – not us.
I don’t want to hear ONE WORD from John Ensign about my marriage, or anyone else’s for that matter, as long as he elects to continue in public life.
You got that right. These people can cherry pick the Old Testament something fierce. They’re a little shaky on the New Testament, particularly the gospels, though.
I tend to consider myself an agnostic. I can’t say with complete certainty what is or is not real but I don’t think those claiming to believe in the supernatural (aka the majority) have ever met the burden of proof.
Hope it was a pet dino.
Speaking of War On Marriage, When one looks very closely at the notices in the DOMA brief the DOJ filed on June 11th, take a look at counsel receiving notice:
James A Campbell
jcampbell@telladf.org
Brian W Raum
braum@telladf.org
joshua@telladf.org
jhallock@telladf.org
Which is associated with this website: http://www.alliancedefensefund…..8;home=yes
Get it? The folks who the DOJ sided with and agreed with are rightwing Christian bigots also associated with militant anti-choice wingers.
ADF is affiliated with Trinity, Regent and Intelligent Design Network and Focus on the Family.
It’s simply maddening to me.
If wishes were horses, we’d all be eating steak.
I left off – It’s truly ALWAYS OK if your a Republican.
He is the son of a casino mogul, so you would expect him to have a better defined sense of morality. If you can’t trust people with organized crime connections, what the hell is left?
Bipartisanship, I guess. Obama seems determined to fail as a president, but to do so in a very bipartisan manner.
that is a perfectly rational position to take. Hard to “prove” the existence of anything on a spiritual level. Just as hard to disprove it. The jury is still out and will be until another dimension is experienced. Or not.
Amen. Last I heard, the Kiss of Death was still the Kiss of Death.
If he was riding it I think that makes it a working dino.
From what I hear even if it was a wild dino he would do fine.
If I get there first, I’ll post a comment to let you know.”:-)
Is this his first extramarital affair, I’d like to know?
Have the other parties ever strayed?
Does his marriage permit this kind of openness?
What promises is he keeping, exactly?
That’s Amore.”
One religious zealot informed me that I had my history ass backwards. According to him, Monotheism (writ large) came before polytheism. Ergo, Zoroastrianism is not the father of the three abrahamic religions as I had gleaned from lying secular history books written by Satan.
He has a marriage permit?
Meanwhile, business as usual: blue dogs meet with Rethugs on health care.
It’s been fun boys and girls. Time to leap into my tree.
Be good to yourselves, and all other living things.
Namaste
The other day on the Biography Channel Satan was featured. Really confused me.
I suppose the benefit of that would be that when everything goes to hell, it won’t be as easy for the Republicans to disavow all responsibility.
Not that they won’t try.
Satan is a goddamned liar!!!
G’nite, happy leaping.
Look like this? Pay close attention to the image.
“Satan was born to a lower middle class family in Scranton…”
Next time Mitt Romney starts babbling about Barack Obama’s “apology tour” I’d like someone to say to him, “Oh, no, you must be speaking about John Ensign. It’s he who is on the most recent apology tour.”
Eli !
“Poor, poor John Ensign. He tried so hard …” - Eli
Apparently, that’s what got him into all this trouble … *g*
Even as we have meddled for years in elections worldwide, we won’t meddle with Iran’s election. We’re gonna keep meddling in Afghansitan and Iraq, however.
- President Bipartisan Barack.
Petro!
“I try, milady. And then, when I’ve got my breath back, I try again.” – Black Adder (probably very badly misquoted)
Well, Miss Sunshine…He’s a politician. What do you think?
No way. Those guys got class. Not like politicians. *snicker*
This makes me think he was subverted by a Republican who didn’t want him to become the ‘12 candidate for pres. He has such a nice tan. Must be somebody like Newtie who wanted to take him out of the picture.
I’m coming really late to the party, but that video is the lamest, stupidest thing I’ve seen in a long time.
What a maroon!
I would love to comment on this but every time I post in here about gay issues the straight women have a cow.
They want us to do their hair and design their clothes.
And nothign else.
re: “that is a perfectly rational position to take. Hard to “prove” the existence of anything on a spiritual level” and re:atheist fundamentalism.
The oft-used rational vs irrational frame is terribly limited – there is also the category of non-rational. It recently occurred to me that religious fundamentalists are people who refuse to, or are unable to, use the left half of their brain. Atheist fundamentalists refuse to, or are unable to, use the right half of their brain. The refusals seem to be based on fear. Reality can be damn scary.