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John Ensign Affair: GOP Senator admits relationship with ex-campaign staffer

celticlord said:
I don't see the hubby whining like a schoolgirl that Ensign ruined his marriage. Instead, he sought to make some coin off his wife doing the Senator. Did Ensign make a bad choice? Absolutely. Is it newsworthy? Hardly.


Edwards was a sleaze for playing for sympathy as the supportive husband of his cancer-stricken wife while he was putting one in the oven with his mistress, then using campaign contributions to buy her off.

Frankly, I don't care if politicians indulge in married women or married men, or alternate between the two; they could have weekly orgies on Capitol Hill as far as I'm concerned. Their sex lives don't interest me (unless the ladies are super hot and there's some good vid footage). If they're paying hush money and doing other sleazy things, then I get mildly interested, but not until then.

Ensign fished off the company pier, and is learning the hard way why you don't do that. Big deal. At least he gave the staffer severance; Slick Willie didn't even offer to pay for Monica's dry cleaning bill.
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How much was the severance pay? Since she was working on his campaign, was that money paid to her from the campaign funds?

I could care less myself about any ones sex life other than my own.

I'm just seeing how many people who destroyed John Edwards, will in turn defend John Ensign.
 
Shep Dawg said:
How much was the severance pay? Since she was working on his campaign, was that money paid to her from the campaign funds?
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Who cares?

Edwards hired his mistress to hush her up--a deal of "I can't support the baby I left in you because I'm already married but here's a cush job to make up for it."

This is so not comparable to Edwards.
 
Shep Dawg said:
John Ensign Affair: GOP Senator Admits Relationship With Ex-Campaign Staffer

Will their be as much outrage from the GOP and right wing as there was with John Edwards?

Didn't this guy take to the Senate floor defending the sanctity of marriage?

Why would he discriminate against gay marriage on one hand using the sanctity of marriage argument and the violate that same sanctity.

Apparently he was "friends" with the womans husband, whom also worked for him.
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Our country is being raped by Washington politicians and we should care about their sex lives because?
 
Ethereal said:
Our country is being raped by Washington politicians and we should care about their sex lives because?
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Apparently they know where all the willing women are.
 
Another politician and another affair.... this couldn't fall more under the heading "I really couldn't care less" even if included a watching paint drying contest.
 
Re: Ensign acknowledges extramarital affair

bhkad said:
What's wrong with promoting a moral standard even if you are unable to consistently reach that same standard?
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It is quite amusing seeing Liberals/Independents (who pose as Independents) constantly whine about "hypocrisy" from those who at least believe there should be a moral standard.

I guess in order to ensure there will not be any chance of "hypocrisy" we should only elect immoral atheists to run the country. :roll:
 
Re: Ensign acknowledges extramarital affair

Kandahar said:
Many loving, long-term relationships start in the office. I don't think there's anything wrong with ****ing coworkers...but subordinates are a different matter.
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This is true, but there's also the dark side of dating co-workers. If it falls apart, you'd then have to work in a possibly, and consistently, awkward situation for a really long time. Even worse, if it ends super badly, you then have a co-worker gossiping about super secret and embarrassing stuff about you to the rest of your co-workers. Even worse, your boss could learn of it and come to the conclusion that you can't keep your personal **** separate from the office. Even worse, the boss hears super secret and embarrassing gossip about you and his opinion of you drops a few notches.

So sure, workplace romance has its golden stories, but as a rule of thumb it's a really bad m.o.
 
celticlord said:
He didn't cheat. He and his wife were separated at the time.
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I found that out in another thread (from you) after posting that.

Dogger807 said:
Another politician and another affair.... this couldn't fall more under the heading "I really couldn't care less" even if included a watching paint drying contest.
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It's kind of sad that it doesn't even shock us anymore.
 
Re: Ensign acknowledges extramarital affair

Another politician... rather, another human being is proven to be a hypocrite. I don't understand why this is news. The corporate media pounces on controversial stories like this in order to generate ratings, but it really has little to no political importance. Sure, he's a member of the ethics comittee if I'm not mistaken, but this isn't a political matter; it is private.

Can the man still govern? That's all I care about.
 
Re: Ensign acknowledges extramarital affair

Said it before in the other threads on this, will probably say it again: it is not any of my business who some one else sleeps with. Maybe we could get better people in government if we stopped digging into every single little thing that politicians do. I seriously think we scare off all the good people from politics. Seriously, who in their right mind would subject their family to what a politicians family would have to go through?
 
Re: Ensign acknowledges extramarital affair

This falls into the "nunya's" category for me. I don't care, I don't want to know, and it has nothing to do with me.
 
Re: Ensign acknowledges extramarital affair

I would really be outraged if I gave a **** who he boinks.
 
Re: Ensign acknowledges extramarital affair

My opinion? Ensign should not resign, and his personal life is nobody's business but his own. The only thing that this has brought out is that Ensign has a double standard when it comes to ethics. But what Senator, Congressman, or even President doesn't?
 
Dav said:
It's kind of sad that it doesn't even shock us anymore.
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True. Family bonds are the most essential form of government, as well as the most neglected. People wonder why our economy and government are starting to falter...the strength of any representative democracy is in the people, too bad a weak populace doesn't lead to a weak government. Instead, it leads to a strong, centralized government, and we all know how good those have been for societies, past and present.

Ask yourself: What percentage of human death can be directly attributed to a strong, centralized government? Perhaps, if one looks at the macrotheory of politics and governance instead of the microtheory, then we can see why humans haven't achieved some sort of "ideal" or "near-perfect" society.

Perhaps, instead of continually modeling our political systems after strong, centralized governments, we should transition to a more family/community-oriented model where local government assumes most of the civic burden. You know, the one our Founding Fathers thought of? Sure, it needed some adjustments, and it always will, (see: Amendment process), but the underlying theory is a very sound one, one that Americans haven't realized in its intended form.

Some people forget that the "finish line" isn't spray-painted on the roadmap to life. What happens if we run past the goal without knowing it? How far we will run before we realize we've missed it?
 
Re: Ensign acknowledges extramarital affair

chevydriver1123 said:
Moral of the story:

Dont **** with coworkers...literally.
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Translation: Don't piss in your drinking water.

.
 
Re: Ensign acknowledges extramarital affair

It is truly fascinating to see how many on the right say, "Who cares?" I felt that way yesterday, but that was before I found out:

(1) he called for Clinton's impeachment over the Monica Lewinsky scandal;

(2) he called for Larry Craig's resignation for his bathroom scene (which didn't even amount to physical contact);

(3) he is a member of "Promise Keepers," which says they are "Men with Integrity." Home - Promise Keepers

He's a ****ing loser, and I am thrilled that this has come out and that his chances of running for president in 2012 are gone. Buh-bye, you unfaithful jerk.

Being separated from one's spouse is not a termination of the marriage.
 
Re: Ensign acknowledges extramarital affair

celticlord said:
Something to consider before building this non-scandal into something it isn't:

Ensign admits affair; sources say blackmail involved - Yahoo! News

Consider the timeline:

Ensign and wife separate.
Ensign and staffer start bumping uglies.
Ensign and wife reconcile.
Ensign and staffer stop bumping uglies. Staffer is given severance.

Is it a mistake to bump uglies with a campaign worker? Definitely.

Was he "cheating" on his wife? Only in a technical sense, and if they were legally separated not even then (romantic liaisons while legally separated are generally not considered as adultery in a divorce proceeding).

Then the staffer's husband decides to squeeze Ensign for some cash, and he decides to go public to defang the SOB.

No scandal here, folk, nothing to see, move along.
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So this was a pay after you play deal!
 
Re: Ensign acknowledges extramarital affair

aps said:
It is truly fascinating to see how many on the right say, "Who cares?" I felt that way yesterday, but that was before I found out:

(1) he called for Clinton's impeachment over the Monica Lewinsky scandal;

(2) he called for Larry Craig's resignation for his bathroom scene (which didn't even amount to physical contact);

(3) he is a member of "Promise Keepers," which says they are "Men with Integrity." Home - Promise Keepers

He's a ****ing loser, and I am thrilled that this has come out and that his chances of running for president in 2012 are gone. Buh-bye, you unfaithful jerk.

Being separated from one's spouse is not a termination of the marriage.
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Well the right wing freakball parade of hypocrits continue to produce one hero to the hypocrits after another. That's the wing the Repubparty that just keeps on giving !!
 
Re: Ensign acknowledges extramarital affair

danarhea said:
My opinion? Ensign should not resign, and his personal life is nobody's business but his own. The only thing that this has brought out is that Ensign has a double standard when it comes to ethics. But what Senator, Congressman, or even President doesn't?
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So moral ethics is not a standard that you want in goernment servants or elected officials ?

So Bathroom Boy Craig, Monica's Boyfriend, Barney Frank, Vitter, and countless others should not have be repremanded for any of the horrible things that they did/do ?
 
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Re: Ensign acknowledges extramarital affair

bhkad said:
What's wrong with promoting a moral standard even if you are unable to consistently reach that same standard?
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Isn't this similar to Christian Preachers of all flavors?
 
Re: Ensign acknowledges extramarital affair

Redress said:
Said it before in the other threads on this, will probably say it again: it is not any of my business who some one else sleeps with. Maybe we could get better people in government if we stopped digging into every single little thing that politicians do. I seriously think we scare off all the good people from politics. Seriously, who in their right mind would subject their family to what a politicians family would have to go through?
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My old man, a convicted felon, has continuously told me I should have gotten into politics.

I tell him, with you as my father, hell no!
 
Re: Ensign acknowledges extramarital affair

Scarecrow Akhbar said:
Succinct, to the point, and unassailable.

You're right. No story here.
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uh, what part of " Sen. John Ensign acknowledged Tuesday that he had an affair with a campaign staffer " do you not understand ??

was it acknowledged ?
affair ?
with a campaign staffer ?

you can do it you can get out of the dept of denial if you try !!
 
Re: Ensign acknowledges extramarital affair

Who cares?

The only reason we heard about this is because he was a politician.

****, this might raise his approval rating among some.
 
Re: Ensign acknowledges extramarital affair

F107HyperSabr said:
uh, what part of " Sen. John Ensign acknowledged Tuesday that he had an affair with a campaign staffer " do you not understand ??

was it acknowledged ?
affair ?
with a campaign staffer ?

you can do it you can get out of the dept of denial if you try !!
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What is the significance of this?

What has he done that hundreds of thousands, maybe even millions of other American men have not done?
 
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