Well, frumps, it seems like we can’t get through a week here with out the Party of Family Values getting caught with their pants down. It scares me to think about the stuff they do get away with. How slimy must that bucket be?
I definitely got to a “too much information” point on the Senor Sanford story. I also believed that John Ensign got caught , confessed and was trudging dutifully toward political obscurity. Good riddance. But nooooo!
Chapter 2 is now out before we even get to take a breath.
Yesterday, USA Today reported that Ensign’s parents gave $96,000 to his mistress (Cynthia Hampton) and her family “out of concern for the well-being of family friends.”
In a statement read by his lawyer, Ensign said:
“None of the gifts came from campaign or official funds, nor were they related to any campaign or official duties,”
and the attorney added:
“Sen. Ensign has complied with all applicable laws and Senate ethics rules”
Predictably, Ensign told the Las Vegas Sun “he had no plans to resign.”
These guys don’t get too worried about the feelings of their constituencies as long as their “higher authority” gives them the nod.
As with most modern tales of Republican mid-life-crisis, this one has its comic qualities as well as a very high sleaze quotient. The “Mr Ensign goes to Washington” story, in a nutshell is thus: Ensign gets elected to represent the people of Nevada and takes the “apple of his eye” and her trusty husband with him as “aides.” Even the teenaged son gets a summer job out of the deal. One thing quickly leads to another, and quicker than you can say Family Values, the Senator and his aide are doing the dirty on Capitol Hill.
The best part of this story, though, is:
• not the high school-ish break-up letter Ensign writes, under duress, during some weird, neocon intervention at a congressional frat house on C Street.
• not the fact that Ensign’s mommy and daddy are willing to cough up $96,000 to make the mistress “whole” again
• not the fact that Doug Hampton, the “injured and innocent” party, confronted Ensign about the affair in February, 2008 and mysteriously, “Mata Hari” immediately takes on extra duties and has her salary doubled.
• not that the recent Employee of the Month” (and her aggrieved husband) are out of a job by April with a $25,000 severance check to ease their way.
No. The best part is that when all of this “stuff” hit the fan, it was revealed that Ensign’s spiritual advisor in this matter is Dr. Tom. That would be good old Sen. Tom Coburn, M.D. (R-OK), the Okie from Muskogee. Evidently, Coburn and Ensign live in the same “frat house” when Congress is in session.
It was in that house that Doug Hampton, Coburn and others got together with Ensign to talk him into giving Hampton his wife (and his life) back. Allegedly, part of that session included a discussion on how much money would be needed to get the “Good Ship Hampton” back on course and pointed toward Colorado.
Coburn admits he was present for this session but he has advised the press that, in his capacities as physician and ordained deacon of the Southern Baptist Church, any advice that he gave Ensign about cleaning up his mess, is protected by professional confidentiality.
Here’s how he put it to the press:
“I’m not going to go into that — that’s privileged communications. I’m never going to talk about that with anybody. … I never will, not to a court of law, not to an Ethics Committee, not to anybody — because that is privileged communication that I will never reveal to anybody.”
Well, isn’t that special? Now, Coburn is an Ob/Gyn so it’s a stretch to say that he was ministering to Ensign in his role as a physician and I’m just not up on the “confidentiality clause” in the Official Deacon’s User Manual. I’m also not sure whether that will fly with a Senate Ethics Committee inquiry.
Just in case you need a refresher on who Senator Coburn is, I’ve compiled a list of memorable moments from the Senator’s stint in Public Service. Obviously he hasn’t always been so loathe to speak to the press:
On Abortion:
During his senate campaign in 2004 Coburn prounced that “I favor the death penalty for abortionists.”
Now, last time I checked, abortions were not crimes and, therefore, abortionists wouldn’t be requiring sentencing unless, of course, they actually did something criminal. This makes me worry not only about the Senator’s grasp of the law but also of reality. Don’t you just wish this guy was your gynecologist?
On Homosexuality:
According to The American Prospect, during Coburn’s 2004 senatorial campaign in Oklahoma, Coburn remarked that in the town of Coalgate, Oklahoma, lesbianism was “so rampant in some of the schools…that they’ll let only one girl go to the bathroom.” Needless to say, Coalgate School officials have denied his statement. And, once again, this man is a gynecologist, for God’s sake! (And a liar. But maybe if you’re lying to do God’s work . . .)
Coburn has also been quoted as saying:
“The gay community has infiltrated the very centers of power in every area across this country, and they wield extreme power… That agenda is the greatest threat to our freedom that we face today. Why do you think we see the rationalization for abortion and multiple sexual partners? That’s a gay agenda.”
In 2002, President George Bush chose Dr. Coburn to serve as co-chair of the President’s Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (PACHA) on which he still serves. Good pick, Dubya.
On Schindler’s List appearing on TV:
As a congressman in 1997, Coburn protested NBC’s airing of the R-rated Academy Award-winning Holocaust drama Schindler’s List. Coburn said in airing the movie NBC had taken television “to an all-time low, with full-frontal nudity, violence and profanity.” He also said the broadcast should outrage parents and decent-minded individuals everywhere. Coburn described the airing of Schindler’s List as “…irresponsible sexual behavior…I cringe when I realize that there were children all across this nation watching this program.” WTF?!?
After a public outcry over his remark, including comments from some of his Republican colleagues, Coburn later apologized and admitted that the statement was one of the most regrettable things he’d done in public life. (There’s still time to top that, though).
During Justice Roberts Confirmation Hearing:
On September 14, 2005, during the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee John Roberts, Coburn stopped working on a crossword puzzle and began speaking about partisan politics while, according to news reports, “choking back a sob“.
Coburn then began his questioning by revealing his confusion regarding the various legal terms bandied about during the previous day’s hearings. Proceeding to questions regarding both abortion and end-of-life issues, Coburn, who noted that during his tenure as a general practitioner he had delivered some 4,000 babies, asked Roberts whether the judge agreed with the proposition that “the opposite of being dead is being alive.”
“You know I’m going somewhere. One of the problems I have is coming up with just the common sense and logic that if brain wave and heartbeat signifies life, the absence of them signifies death, then the presence of them certainly signifies life.”
“And to say its otherwise, logically is schizophrenic. And that’s how I view a lot of the decisions that have come from the Supreme Court on the issue of abortion.”
So now, this guy Coburn is sane and logical and the Supreme Court is schizophrenic?
The scariest thing about all of this, to me, is that there are lots and lots of Americans out there who voted for these guys to represent them in government. We can only hope that they don’t all truly ascribe to the magical thinking and weird politics of their elected officials.
politics politicians corrupt hypocritical hush money adultery GOP neocons Republicans
