Ensign: I did nothing 'legally wrong'

[The Overlord]

Sen. John Ensign told The Associated Press on Wednesday that his affair with a friend's wife was different from former President Bill Clinton's relationship with a White House intern because he didn't lie about it under oath.

Hey, Mr. Artificially whitened unfaithful prick, stop comparing yourself to the errors of the opposition to make yourself look any less guilty.

Like most of high government, your ass has been in as many ports of call as the US Navy. Like Bill Clinton, you fracked up and happened to get caught, so shut the hell up.

For the record, yes Clinton lied under oath. If screwing his secretary was the worst thing a president or senator has ever lied about, I could live with that, but we all know that’s fantasy.

On one hand I’m glad the Republicans even have some environmentalists among their ranks but what a dipshit...guys like this actually get elected.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090820/ap_on_re_us/us_ensign_affair

FERNLEY, Nev. – Sen. John Ensign told The Associated Press on Wednesday that his affair with a friend's wife was different from former President Bill Clinton's relationship with a White House intern because he didn't lie about it under oath.

"I haven't done anything legally wrong," the Nevada Republican said.

"President Clinton stood right before the American people and he lied to the American people," Ensign said. "You remember that famous day he lied to the American people, plus the fact I thought he committed perjury. That's why I voted for the articles of impeachment."

Ensign made the remarks before being introduced to a standing ovation from about 100 people at a Chamber of Commerce luncheon in rural Fernley, about 40 miles east of Reno.

Ensign opened his speech by acknowledging what he called a "distraction."

"I think it would be inappropriate to start any other way than to say I'm sorry," he said. "I've said I'm sorry. I can't say I'm sorry enough. I made a big mistake in my life and I apologize once again to all of you."

The luncheon was Ensign's first public appearance in his home state since acknowledging in June that he had an extramarital affair with former campaign aide Cynthia Hampton.

Ensign resigned as head of the Republican Policy Committee after admitting to the affair with Hampton from December 2007 to August 2008. Hampton's husband, Doug, was Ensign's administrative assistant in his Washington, D.C., Senate office and the families were friends.

Ensign's attorney has also said that Ensign's parents paid the woman and her family $96,000 after learning about the affair.

Ensign once called on President Bill Clinton to resign after his affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky erupted in 1998, declaring: "The truth must come out."

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, government watchdog group, has called for investigations into Ensign by the Senate Ethics Committee and the Federal Elections Commission.

Melanie Sloan, CREW's executive director, said Ensign's distinction between his situation and that of Clinton was essentially an attempt to claim his affair was less contemptible.

"Isn't that a little like saying, 'It depends on what the meaning of the word 'is' is?'" she said in a statement Wednesday. "One politician comparing his illicit affair to another's is a sure sign his career is in trouble."

Ensign told the AP on Wednesday that he can understand how some people might "have a problem" with the fact he called for Clinton's resignation but won't resign himself.

"But if you look at the times ... I was in the House of Representatives but basically was sitting in judgment of the president evaluating the case. I was basically a jurist at that point. I thought there was a violation of a felony," he said.

Ensign said in the interview he never considered resigning from the Senate and is focused on fulfilling his six-year term.

"What we're trying to do is go around to people in the state of Nevada and tell them how sorry I am for what I did. But now I need to focus on earning their trust back by working harder than I've ever worked for them," Ensign said. "There's no magic to hard work. It is literally focusing on what is important to Nevadans. Right now, the biggest issue Nevadans and the rest of the country face is health care."

Ensign spoke for about 30 minutes at the luncheon and answered a handful of questions submitted on cards. None were about the affair.

Later Wednesday he toured a U.S. Forest Service project at Lake Tahoe aimed at thinning forests to reduce fuel loads in an effort to reduce wildfire threats. On Thursday, he is scheduled to host the 12th annual Tahoe Environmental Summit that Clinton and Vice President Al Gore first hosted in 1997.

[Sabby]

Family Guy Quagmire apologizing to the nation

[The Overlord]

So, is that googis or gugus? It might be important.

[Sabby]

Actually, I was more concerned with how one 'gashoigitys' a woman

[The Overlord]

Actually, I was more concerned with how one 'gashoigitys' a woman

I'm really not even sure what orifice that goes in :/

[Oniya]

I suppose he hasn't noticed the parade of governors that have resigned their offices recently over similar 'indiscretions'.

[Inkidu]

Technically he's right. Most people consider adultery only morally wrong not illegally wrong. Perjury on the other hand is a big legal no no.

So yes he's technically correct, and most people think that's the best kind of correct.

[Callie Del Noire]

I always found it funny that adultery isn't against the law BUT the in the military it IS against the law.

Yes, according the the uniform code of military justice they can punishes you for doing what this guy did.

Personally I think the Honorable Mr. Ensign is a skeeze who needs to not be out of office but to quietly vanish from public affairs all together. but sadly he seems to be the type of politician that his constituents will only vote out if.. how did my Poli Sci teacher in college put it? Oh yeah.. If he was found in bed with a "Live Boy or Dead Girl.'.

[consortium11]

You know the worst thing?

Ensign isn't a bad poitician.

He's been remarkably bipartisan for a senator, especially for issues in his home state, he had/has a great record on limiting government waste (before it was "cool" to do so), his animal rights record is both sensible and ethical, depending on your views on the Cuba comittee (I generally like them) that could be classed as a big positive and  he has been a great leader in the fight against eminant domain. His views on Clinton were a little OTT and I really disagree with his abortion and marriage viewpoints, but on the whole he was a decent representative.

Now?

Now he'll struggle to keep his seat and pretty much be thrown under the bus, all for something that has little to nothing to do with his actual poitical career.

It's time the electorate/politicians on both the UK and US sides of the Atlantic paid attention to their Continental European colleages where a politicians private life, however juicy, is of far less importance than what they can/have accomplise(d) in public office.

[Inkidu]

You know the worst thing?

Ensign isn't a bad poitician.

He's been remarkably bipartisan for a senator, especially for issues in his home state, he had/has a great record on limiting government waste (before it was "cool" to do so), his animal rights record is both sensible and ethical, depending on your views on the Cuba comittee (I generally like them) that could be classed as a big positive and  he has been a great leader in the fight against eminant domain. His views on Clinton were a little OTT and I really disagree with his abortion and marriage viewpoints, but on the whole he was a decent representative.

Now?

Now he'll struggle to keep his seat and pretty much be thrown under the bus, all for something that has little to nothing to do with his actual poitical career.

It's time the electorate/politicians on both the UK and US sides of the Atlantic paid attention to their Continental European colleages where a politicians private life, however juicy, is of far less importance than what they can/have accomplise(d) in public office.

Well if you're going to be in public office, you're going to have to set some kind of example, some kind of higher standard. It comes with the territory.

[Zeitgeist]

Makes a mental note that character matters, and what politicians do on their own time 'matters'.

[The Overlord]

Ultimately I feel any public servant that's unfaithful to a spouse ultimately has to answer only to that spouse. If the president gets laid in a third-world country so he doesn't declare war on it instead, fine, but it's his family's business not ours.

As I understand it Europe has it completely 180º. The French PM's mistress often appears in public with him from what I heard. Now I won't get into an argument on whether the Europeans are too morally loose or if we Americans have a too-large wooden plank up our collective righteous asses, as that's a whole other thread, but it clearly seems to be just a social factor. Hell if all of America were Mormons I doubt this would be an issue at all, multiple women would be the norm.

Again, I'd take Slick Willie over Dubya any day. Willie just screwed his secretary and lied about it...Bush bumfracked the country with a blindfold on and never owed up to it.

[Zeitgeist]

Hell if all of America were Mormons I doubt this would be an issue at all, multiple women would be the norm.

Side note:

Almost every religion has fringe elements, a few fundamentalist Mormons have multiple wives, but the majority of mainstream Mormons have long since abandoned this practice.

[The Overlord]

Hell if all of America were fringe Mormons I doubt this would be an issue at all, multiple women would be the norm.

Better?

[Trieste]

Ahahahaha. <3

(Oh my god, I just floatyhearted Overlord. I clearly need a vacation.)

[Zeitgeist]

Better?

Much.

[consortium11]

Well if you're going to be in public office, you're going to have to set some kind of example, some kind of higher standard. It comes with the territory.

It's not some universal rule written in the stars. For a lot of continental Europe someones private life (yes, even a politician's) is exactly that... private. Unless it directly interferes with their day job it is no-one's business but theirs.

To use a controversial example: Martin Luther King, Jr was a plagiarist during his academic career, his subsequent publications and even the "I have a dream" speech borrows liberally from one of his friends and had multiple extramarital affairs. In today's political world there's a good chance he would have never got off the starting blocks because of that.

As I understand it Europe has it completely 180º. The French PM's mistress often appears in public with him from what I heard.

That may be a case of the meaning getting lost in translation; The French Prime Minister's wife is semi-officially known as the "mistress of Matignon". As far as I know Fihlon (the French PM) has never been accused of being unfaithful.

Nicolas Sarkozy (the French President) has been accused of adultery before in 2005/6, but at the time he and his wife were separated after she had already had an affair. As he's currently married to Carla Bruni and the couple are on somewhat of a charm offensive I doubt his eye is wandering.

The real star of the "Private = Private" point of view is the Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. It would take too long to go through all the issues he's faced but a quick list includes:

1) Links to the mafia
2) Choosing his EU elections candidates primarily on looks: several were (ex)models with no political experience
3) Several affairs, including the most recent being with an 18 year old model
4) "Entertaining" prostitutes
5) Having near total control of the Italian media
6) Doing the cuckold symbol behind other politicians back
7) Saying German politicians would fit perfectly as guards in a concentration camp
8) Saying companies should invest in Italy as they have the most beautiful secretaries.
9) Accusing the Chinese of eating their children... and then as a retraction saying instead they boiled them to fertilise their fields.
10) Complimenting Obama on his "sun tan"
11) Playing hide and seek when receiving politicians
12) Saying that people who lost their homes in a recent earthquake should treat their refugee camp as a "camping holiday".

And yet he is one of Italy's most popular ever politicians...

[Oniya]

Let's not forget JFK, whose affairs were both numerous and infamous, and Winston Churchill, who 'started with whisky and soda in the morning and switched to brandy in the afternoon'.  No one can deny that these two men were not only popular, but also very effective politicians.

[consortium11]

AFAIK (at least with regards to Churchill) most of the "negative" stories about him only really appeared after both his and his wife's deaths, so it doesn't really apply. I don't know with JFK... were his affairs commonly known about (rather than just hinted at) during his run?

[Callie Del Noire]

AFAIK (at least with regards to Churchill) most of the "negative" stories about him only really appeared after both his and his wife's deaths, so it doesn't really apply. I don't know with JFK... were his affairs commonly known about (rather than just hinted at) during his run?

I think that some of them were known or hinted at. The whole Kennedy family (at least the male side) seems to have been into affairs. Joe Kennedy was and his sons pretty much followed in lock step. Word is that Joe had to make some REALLY big offer to JFK's wife to stay with him.

Marilyn Monroe is pretty much an open secret but any actually proof? Only if the Hoover files come up. It is thought that J Edgar had a 'talk' with JFK and Bobby and as a result he stayed in charge of the FBI.

[Oniya]

Apparently JFK's dalliances drove the Secret Service nuts, since none of these women were allowed to be searched.  There was one woman who was making a big to-do about them during the 1960 Presidential campaign, although the general public either didn't believe her or didn't care.

Still, rumors alone have been enough to topple a politician.

[Bayushi]

Marilyn Monroe is pretty much an open secret but any actually proof? Only if the Hoover files come up. It is thought that J Edgar had a 'talk' with JFK and Bobby and as a result he stayed in charge of the FBI.

It was recently revealed that JFK and Marilyn Monroe had used the bedroom above his brother's office(when his brother was the Attorney General) to 'get together'.

Also, JFK was known to 'entertain' nude or scantily clad women in the white house pool, and was almost caught once by Jackie. This is coming from a former Secret Service member of the Presidential Detail who wrote a book about his time as an agent.

It frankly doesn't surprise me. It seemed that John Kennedy was quite the ladies man. And of course he wouldn't have admitted to it, as he was a Catholic.

Our problem isn't that we have Politicians cheating on spouses. Our problem is that America is stuck with a twisted version of Feminism crossed with old Victorian principles. Sex is bad, but blood and gore is fine. Show a guy getting his head blown off? No problem! Show some titties? OMG, HANG THEM!

While there is no law or requirement to keep religion out of politics, we really need to remember that not everyone ascribes to any one religion, or even to any religion. Morality is relative, and frankly none of anyone's business. Unless it violates the law(child molestation, rape, etc), government has no business, or right, to regulate it.