Speaking of CREW (and we were): While the ethically-challenged ex-Senator from Nevada (turned veterinarian) John Ensign didn’t make CREW’s “Most Corrupt Members of Congress List” this year (as he has in years past), CREW is hardly finished with him yet:
“Mitt Romney’s campaign has gone to great lengths in recent days to make Rick Santorum’s endorsement of the former Massachusetts governor’s 2008 White House run a burden for Santorum’s current presidential bid.
“The attack has always had a hint of hypocrisy, owing to the $10,000 that Romney’s political action committee gave to Santorum when Santorum was running for re-election to the Senate in 2006. But, it turns out, the support Romney gave to his now-presidential rival was deeper than a set (more…)
“…Santorum says giving Mitt Romney the nomination would be the same mistake as the GOP made in 1976 when Gerald Ford took the ticket instead of Ronald Reagan. You see, Ford was a moderate (aka, closet liberal), while Reagan was a God-fearing conservative of which Santorum says he is a mirror image.
“But is Santorum talking about THE President Ronald Reagan? That Reagan raised taxes, was divorced and remarried, liberalized immigration laws, (more…)
“Santorum’s kids were living in Virginia while his Pennsylvania school district paid $55,000 to reimburse that state for their education through the Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School. Jon Delano, a political operative-turned television anchor in Pittsburgh, recalled that the arrangement dominated news coverage for weeks, with Santorum’s old foils revelling in the chance to call out hypocrisy. … (more…)
Icky Ricky has “suspended” his presidential campaign. (He has to say “suspended” instead of “quit,” so he can keep collecting donations.) (more…)
Rick “Man on Dog” Santorum says the majority of schools in the University of California system don’t teach American history.
As with almost everything that comes out of Icky Ricky’s mouth, this is wrong. You could even call it a lie (if you were having a bad day and feeling unwilling to give Ricky the benefit of the doubt; i.e., he may just be incurably stupid). (more…)
“At a campaign event in [Troy, Michigan] on Saturday, Rick Santorum called President Obama a ‘snob’ for wanting all Americans to go to college.
“But according to an archived page of Rick Santorum’s 2006 Senate campaign website, Santorum said he was ‘committed to ensuring the every Pennsylvanian has access to higher education.’” (more…)
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He’s a veterinarian now. Yes, really.
Well, as long as he doesn’t treat cats like Bill Frist did, and as long as he stays out of public office, that’s fine by us.
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A Capitol Hill soap opera got another twist Thursday when a former staffer with whose wife Sen. Jon Ensign, R-Nev., had an affair, was charged by a Washington, DC grand jury with violating conflict of interest laws.Doug Hampton has been public and vocal in his criticism of Ensign, his former boss, casting himself as a whistleblower. Hampton worked in Ensign’s office from January 2007 to April 2008, until his wife Cindy Hampton was at the center of a sex scandal for an affair she had with Sen. Ensign. The affair had been ongoing while Hampton had been employed in Sen. Ensign’s office. …
The rest of the deliciously ironic story: “Doug Hampton, Staffer Cuckolded By Sen. John Ensign, Indicted For Violating Ethics Law,” ABC News, March 24, 2010
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…Sen. John Ensign, the Republican Senator from Nevada … has been embroiled in a controversy for over a year now stemming from an extra-marital affair he with a staffer and a subsequent effort to keep it quiet.Since the story broke, the Religious Right has had next to nothing to say about Ensign’s infidelity, with the small exception of FRC’s Tony Perkins saying it was “disappointing.” But I suspect that that is about to change if this report from Greg Sargent turns out to be true…
Read the rest at Religious Right Watch.
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A few of Ensign’s former aides have been slapped with subpoenas. Details: Politico.
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Entry deleted because there are some sources we refuse to link to any longer.
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Practically broke by comparison, anyway: Politico.
Our hearts bleed. Not.
Backstory:
Hypocrite of the Week: Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) Uses Religious ‘Privilege’ to Hide What He Knows About John Ensign’s Sex Scandal, October 4, 2009
Rachel Maddow: Tom Coburn, Caught in Lie, “Dragged Down Into the Gutter with John Ensign,” October 5, 2009
October 7, 2009
Something has gotten to Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), who just days ago was citing religious and medical “privilege” to excuse himself from spilling what he knows about Sen. John Ensign‘s (R-Nev.) sex scandal. Actually, a whole lot of somethings have gotten to Coburn, not the least of which is finding himself in the crosshairs of both the U.S. Justice Department and the Senate Ethics Committee.
C Street, C Street, and more C Street: Coburn “personally negotiated the financial deal, trying to get Ensign the best possible price for his sins.”
Must-watch wraps with interview with Jeff Sharlet, author of The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power.
Of particular interest: damning new revelations about “The Family” involvement of Republican Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood (you were warned about appointing him, President Obama!):
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If this is how it works, we should all drop what we’re doing to get ordained online, so we can claim “privileged communication” and never be forced to testify against anyone, ever!
Jacob M. Appel at HuffPo:
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October 2, 2009
Mike “Spanky” Duvall might be off the hook, albeit temporarily, but John “Daddy’s $96,000 to My Mistress Wasn’t Hush Money!” Ensign (R-Hypocritonite, NV) has just begun his journey into the fun-filled world of Senate ethics investigations.
September 15, 2009 — Today, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) released its fifth annual report on the most corrupt members of Congress.
CREW’s Most Corrupt Members of Congress provides a detailed analysis of the unethical and sometimes illegal activities of 15 congressmen and women who have most egregiously betrayed the public’s trust. …
The full list, complete with detailed profiles of all inductees, is available at CREWsMostCorrupt.org — but we’d like to single out the three Conservative Babylonians to earn this august distinction: (more…)
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The Las Vegas Sun has the scans:
“Hampton to Santorum: Ensign destroyed my family“
August 3, 2009
Meanwhile, Mr. “Sanctity of Marriage” says he’s voting against the confirmation of Sonia Sotomayor “to protect the sanctity of our Constitution” (!):
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