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July 11, 2009 12:14 AM UTC

At Least Your Parents Aren't Paying Your Mistress

  • 30 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

In another edition of our long-running “At Least They’re Not Your Legislators” posts, we take you to Nevada, where, well, according to a post from “The Fix” yesterday:

Nevada Sen. John Ensign has acknowledged that his parents paid his mistress and her family $96,000 in April 2008, according to a statement made by his attorney moments ago.

“After the Senator told his parents about the affair, his parents decided to make the gifts out of concern for the well-being of long-time family friends during a difficult time,” said Paul Coggins, counsel to Ensign…

…Ensign’s acknowledgment comes less than 24 hours after Jon Ralston, the king of Nevada political reporters, sat down with Doug Hampton — the husband of Ensign’s mistress — and made a string of allegations including that Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn had tried unsuccessfully to force Ensign to end the affair.

Ensign has insisted he has no plans to resign his office, telling the Las Vegas Sun today that “I always planned on serving and working hard — working harder than I ever worked — and I’m going to continue to do that.”

As we have written before (in relation to one Mark Sanford), stories like this one often spiral out of control of the person at the center of the storm. Ensign had weathered the initial bad press surrounding his affair but this detail may be too much.

We hadn’t really said much about Ensign’s affair(s) here before, but this is too much to pass up because of its sheer weirdness. His parents paid his mistress? How does that conversation even get started?

Uh, mom? Dad? Can I borrow some money?

Comments

30 thoughts on “At Least Your Parents Aren’t Paying Your Mistress

  1. It looks like Ensign is part of a crew of “Bible Camp Forever” colleagues, who played a role in this fiasco:

    http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpoi

    Hampton went on to name four of the men who confronted Ensign: Tim Coe, David Coe, Marty Sherman, and Sen. Tom Coburn. The Coes are the sons of Doug Coe, the influential pastor and longtime leader of The Family, the secretive Christian group with which the C Street fellowship is affiliated. Sherman also has been involved with the Family. “They have a good heart,” Hampton said of the men. (He did not address the question of how the men survive while sharing a crucial bodily organ.)

    At that confrontation, according to Hampton, Coburn and the other men urged Ensign — the son of a multimillionaire casino magnate — to pay for the Hamptons’ home and for a move to Colorado. But as Hampton described it, they also insisted that Ensign write a letter to his girlfriend — later obtained by the Las Vegas Sun — breaking things off and expressing remorse. Then, says Hampton, two of the men, Tim Coe and Sherman, actually drove Ensign to a FedEx office, apparently to make sure he sent the letter.  

    1. Senator Coburn said yesterday that if Ensign had followed his advice this would have been over long ago and it would have been public. That dog won’t hunt. Coburn suggested paying money to the Hamptons and helping them move to Colorado plus a written apology. There is no other way to say this: The money was intended as “hush” money to keep the Hamptons quiet. It wasn’t being paid to ease their pain. It was paid to stop any future pain Ensign might suffer if this whole sordid affair became public. Probably not illegal because the offer came from Ensign and wasn’t an extortion demand from the Hamptons but it is certainly unethical and looks really bad. Ensign should resign and Coburn should be finished for trying to cover-up this up and hide it from the voters in Nevada. His Oklahoma constituents should demand an explanation.    

      1. On the one hand, Ensign never said Clinton should resign for Monica and all that hooey. Sanford did- he was int he House at the time and wanted to impeach the President if he didn’t resign.

        However, he did acknowledge in that cheesy Dear Jane letter that he betrayed everything he stood for because he was a selfish, self centered jerk. Not exactly the kind of person we would really choose to have representing us.

        1. Oh yes he did:

          http://thinkprogress.org/2009/

          “I came to that conclusion recently, and frankly it’s because of what he put his whole Cabinet through and what he has put the country through,” Ensign said Thursday, becoming the first member of the Nevada delegation to call for Clinton to quit. “He has no credibility left.”

      2. After allowing Mommy and Daddy to pay the naughty girl, then sheepishly agreeing to write the letter and be taken directly to FedEx to mail it, it is now being reported that he immediately called his girlfriend (mistress sounds way too sophisticated for this) to tell her to disregard the letter and saw her again the very next day.  Is this guy is the poster boy for arrested adolescence or what!  

  2. Seems that our beloved Gov, always looking out for the average Joe-citizen is in the Denver Post again, and again, not for doing his job the way he’s supposed to be doing it.

    “Governor gave no-bid deal to former partners,” appears in today’s addition and already seems to be fading from public perception and comprehension as it’s not even a top headline. The aptly-named Karen Crummy contributes some actual reporting to the Post at this link:

    http://www.denverpost.com/ci_1

    Hey, thanks for giving everybody a fair shot at the moola, there Governor!

  3. Is it a good time for Johnny to ask his parents for and increase in his allowance?  But then again, maybe his longtime membership with Promise Keepers could lead to paid speaking engagements on the evangelical circuit?

    Has anyone checked to see if he made “gifts” to his parents lately?

    1. Interesting to note, the hush money was paid in eight $12,000 chunks — from each of Ensign’s parents to the mistress, the cuckold and two of their children — exactly the maximum to avoid tripping IRS gift tax rules. Now, if that doesn’t sound like an illegal scheme to get something by the feds, I don’t know what does.  

  4. Sonny screws wife of his best friend.  Mumsy and Pops learn of Sonny’s deed.

    Mumsy and Pops fork over nearly $100,000 to Sonny’s lover, her husband, and 2 of their 3 kids, “out of concern for the well-being of long-time family friends during a difficult time.”

    Meanwhile, back at the ranch, who’s making a financial display of concern for Sonny’s wife and 2/3 of his kids?  Do they get gifts from the parents of Sonny’s lover?  Do Mumsy and Pops decide to shovel a little concern their direction, too?

    I have 2 comments:

    1.  I wonder if I could have a Senator screw my husband.  We could use the dough.

    2.  I’m never letting my kid have sex; I can’t afford it.

        1. Though Edwards wasn’t in office at the time the story broke. He also–eventually–admitted it, and he never paid off his mistress.

          But LB’s point is still right. Edwards was pretty damn low.

          1. Newt actually brought his wife divorce papers to sign while she was in the hospital having surgery for cancer.  I say Newt’s the undisputed king of putrid scum.  Edwards will have to settle for Prince.  Love the way he insists that Elizabeth was in remission at the time, as if that’s supposed to count in his favor.

          2. Edwards’ mistress was paid a lot of money for negligible product. Plus, he had Fred Baron picking up a lot of her tabs for him too.  

  5. The Newtster was railing on President Clinton, all the while having an affair himself, as Speaker of the House.

    I’m well aware that both sides of the aisle have these low budget sidewinding creeps. But what makes this one so particularly creepy to me is that the republicans are constantly in your face with the holier than thou crap. The old “our crap don’t stink” attitude.

    The “C Street Fellowship” chapter of this comedy really sheds light on what these “good christian conservatives” think their place in the world is, what they think the rules are, and what saps they think the average hard working American is.

    Coburn, Ensign, and Gingrich. The very poster boys for “creepy uncles”.

    1. …when we Dems find someone like this we cast them out. Spitzer, Edwards, etc. have zero future in the party.

      But Vitter, Craig, Newt not only stay in the party, but Newt is considered a possibility for president.

      Different standards. The GOP talks about family values, we Dems practice them.

      1. I reject your bi-partisan solution.  Newt wins. He would be the clear winner even if it weren’t for all those extra hypocrisy points but those points do make it a landslide.    

      2. I’m a lifelong Democrat, and we have had any number of sex scandals by Dems in congressional leadership and even the presidency.  Bill Clinton was a serial sexual harasser, adulterer, and possible rapist.  He tried to cover up one of his “bimbo eruptions” by lying under oath, which is perjury, which is a felony.  The Republicans tried to hang him for it and failed; most Democrats treated him as a hero for escaping the Republican noose.

        Remember House Ways and Means Chairman Wilbur Mills?  He was reelected with 60% of the vote after being caught with Fanny Foxe, a stripper from (wait for it) Argentina.  Rep. Garry Studds  was censured for having sex with an underage age; only 2 Democrats voted for censure, and he was reelected 6 times afterward.  Mark Foley, a Republican, resigned when he was caught sexting a page.

        Yeah, the last 2 were a long time ago, but Clinton was 10 years ago.  We haven’t cast him out, have we?  

        Democrats and Republicans are humans, fallible, and prone to thinking with the little head more often than not.  None of us can afford to get self-righteous about the peccadilloes of the other party.

  6. Daddy is a casino mogul — Nevada has legalized prostitution. Does this perhaps suggest that the family has experience with “pay for sex” schemes, or is is simply viewed as “business as usual” in the State of Nirvana (oops) Nevada.

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