The Junior Senator From Nevada To The Rescue
October 5th 2009 14:39
Just when I thought all of the political excitement and perversion was going to originate from the east coast, Nevada Republican/Conservative Senator John Ensign decided to try to balance things out by noodling the wife of his close friend and top aide Douglas Hampton.
Ensign is the junior senator from Nevada, having lost to Harry Reid, the Democratic senior senator and current Senate Majority Leader the first time he ran for a seat in the Senate (he only lost by 428 votes). In 2000, he defeated a Democrat, winning 55% of the vote, and he was re-elected again in 2006. What makes this interesting is that Harry Reid is not looked on very favorably in Nevada, and he has a chance of being upset in his re-election bid in 2010, which would give Nevada two Republican/Conservative Senators, and maybe destroy the Democratic majority in the Senate (other races could also do this).
It seems that Senator Ensign was feeling guilty after sullying Mrs. Hampton, so he decided to assist Doug Hampton in his endeavors to find other employment (he couldn’t very well continue to work for Mr. Ensign, could he?). He was able to land Mr. Hampton a position with a political consulting firm, and then he tried to line up clients for Mr. Hampton’s services. Mr. Ensign, trying to further assist Mr. Hampton, intervened on behalf of Doug Hampton’s clients, often at Doug’s urgings, with the government agencies that Doug Hampton’s clients were lobbying. Does this smack of an ethics violation? While it may sound unethical to the rest of us, it is only unethical in the U.S. Senate if it violates an ethics law that bars senior aides from lobbying Senators for one year after they leave their jobs.
While Senator Ensign has acknowledged his entwinement in the Hampton family, several of his friends and colleagues feel betrayed. Mr. Ensign asked a long time friend to find a job for Mr. Hampton, but did not disclose why it was so necessary to do so. Mr. Ensign tried to distance himself from Mr. Hampton by assigning the job search duties to a senior staff member, and Mr. Ensign had fellow Republican/Conservative Christian Senator Tom Coburn, from Oklahoma, try to negotiate a large financial settlement (bribe?) for the Hamptons.
While Ensign claims that the attempts to find Hampton employment, and the lobbying by Hampton were legal, Hampton tells a different story. He says that Senator Ensign helped him find clients, lobbied government agencies on behalf of those clients, and chose to ignore the lobbying restrictions in the Senate rules. Mr. Hampton alleges that Senator Ensign intervened with the Secretary of Transportation on behalf of Allegiant Airlines, a Nevada based airline, and Interior Department officials on behalf of a coal-burning power plant under construction by NV Energy.
It seems like a bitter Mr. Hampton is going to try to bring down Mr. Ensign. Mr. Hampton wrote to Mr. Ensign: “You have not retained three clients for me as promised, and your poor choices have led to a deep hurt and financial impact to my family. At your request and your design, I left your organization to save your reputation and career, and mine has been ruined.” By making this e-mail message public, Mr. Hampton might succeed.
Mr. Ensign has said, when discussing his transgression with Mrs. Hampton, “I haven’t done anything legally wrong.” This is, of course, counter to Bill Clinton’s transgression with Monica Lewinski in 1998; a pious Senator Ensign called on the President to resign and commented, “He has no credibility left.”
In 2004, Senator Ensign supported the proposed Federal Marriage Amendment: “Marriage is the cornerstone on which our society was founded. For those who say that the Constitution is so sacred that we cannot or should not adopt the Federal Marriage Amendment, I would simply point out that marriage, and the sanctity of that institution, predates the American Constitution and the founding of our nation.”
Apparently, the sanctity of marriage doesn’t apply to senators: nor does ethical behavior.
Ensign is the junior senator from Nevada, having lost to Harry Reid, the Democratic senior senator and current Senate Majority Leader the first time he ran for a seat in the Senate (he only lost by 428 votes). In 2000, he defeated a Democrat, winning 55% of the vote, and he was re-elected again in 2006. What makes this interesting is that Harry Reid is not looked on very favorably in Nevada, and he has a chance of being upset in his re-election bid in 2010, which would give Nevada two Republican/Conservative Senators, and maybe destroy the Democratic majority in the Senate (other races could also do this).
It seems that Senator Ensign was feeling guilty after sullying Mrs. Hampton, so he decided to assist Doug Hampton in his endeavors to find other employment (he couldn’t very well continue to work for Mr. Ensign, could he?). He was able to land Mr. Hampton a position with a political consulting firm, and then he tried to line up clients for Mr. Hampton’s services. Mr. Ensign, trying to further assist Mr. Hampton, intervened on behalf of Doug Hampton’s clients, often at Doug’s urgings, with the government agencies that Doug Hampton’s clients were lobbying. Does this smack of an ethics violation? While it may sound unethical to the rest of us, it is only unethical in the U.S. Senate if it violates an ethics law that bars senior aides from lobbying Senators for one year after they leave their jobs.
While Senator Ensign has acknowledged his entwinement in the Hampton family, several of his friends and colleagues feel betrayed. Mr. Ensign asked a long time friend to find a job for Mr. Hampton, but did not disclose why it was so necessary to do so. Mr. Ensign tried to distance himself from Mr. Hampton by assigning the job search duties to a senior staff member, and Mr. Ensign had fellow Republican/Conservative Christian Senator Tom Coburn, from Oklahoma, try to negotiate a large financial settlement (bribe?) for the Hamptons.
While Ensign claims that the attempts to find Hampton employment, and the lobbying by Hampton were legal, Hampton tells a different story. He says that Senator Ensign helped him find clients, lobbied government agencies on behalf of those clients, and chose to ignore the lobbying restrictions in the Senate rules. Mr. Hampton alleges that Senator Ensign intervened with the Secretary of Transportation on behalf of Allegiant Airlines, a Nevada based airline, and Interior Department officials on behalf of a coal-burning power plant under construction by NV Energy.
It seems like a bitter Mr. Hampton is going to try to bring down Mr. Ensign. Mr. Hampton wrote to Mr. Ensign: “You have not retained three clients for me as promised, and your poor choices have led to a deep hurt and financial impact to my family. At your request and your design, I left your organization to save your reputation and career, and mine has been ruined.” By making this e-mail message public, Mr. Hampton might succeed.
Mr. Ensign has said, when discussing his transgression with Mrs. Hampton, “I haven’t done anything legally wrong.” This is, of course, counter to Bill Clinton’s transgression with Monica Lewinski in 1998; a pious Senator Ensign called on the President to resign and commented, “He has no credibility left.”
In 2004, Senator Ensign supported the proposed Federal Marriage Amendment: “Marriage is the cornerstone on which our society was founded. For those who say that the Constitution is so sacred that we cannot or should not adopt the Federal Marriage Amendment, I would simply point out that marriage, and the sanctity of that institution, predates the American Constitution and the founding of our nation.”
Apparently, the sanctity of marriage doesn’t apply to senators: nor does ethical behavior.
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