Ensign Affair Still Raising Eyebrows…And Questions

When I first read about the Ensign affair I thought it was just your standard, run-of-the-mill scandal, but it’s scandal that won’t end.

First, Doug Hampton gave an interview to the Las Vegas Sun. TPM Muckraker gives us the summary of the revelations:

Hampton said that Ensign paid Cindy more than $25,000 in severance when she stopped working for his campaign committees — a possible felony violation of campaign-finance law if he didn’t report it as an in-kind contribution. (Campaign reports show no such payment.)

Hampton said Ensign continued the affair for months after Hampton found out about it, and even well after the Ensigns and the Hamptons had confronted the issue together!

Hampton also said that Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) urged Ensign to end the liaison and to sweep it under the rug, suggesting that Ensign pay the Hamptons millions and help them resettle in Colorado.

Hampton released a letter written by Ensign to Cindy Hampton, in which he expresses deep remorse for the affair — which continued for around six months after the letter was written! (It reads like the words of a six-year-old who has been ordered by a parent to apologize, but has no independent grasp of what he did wrong.)

Go read the letter for yourself. The characterization of TPM Muckraker of the letter reading like a six-year-old forced to apologize is not far off the mark. Here’s how it starts out:

This is the most important letter that I’ve ever written. What I did with you was wrong. I was completely self-centered and only thinking of myself. I used you for my own pleasure, not letting thoughts of you, Doug, Brandon, Blake or Brittany come into my mind. I betrayed everything I believe in. I lied to myself over and over. I justified my actions because I blamed my wife.

I guess the remorse didn’t stick since the affair lasted six more months. Does any of this start having a Monica/Linda Tripp vibe to it? Why would the Hamptons keep the letter, and continue to work for him?

The parts of the scandal that are raising some eyebrows are the $25,000 severance payment to Cynthia Hampton, which was not properly disclosed in campaign finance reports. This money is in addition to the money paid to both Hamptons and one of the Hampton sons as campaign staffers.

It also looks like Senator Coburn is suffering some collateral damage. Hampton discloses that Coburn urged Ensign to end the affair and pay money to the Hamptons. Coburn did not deny this, until it was disclosed that John Ensign’s parents paid the Hamptons $96,000. Coburn is now denying that he urged Ensign to pay restitution to the Hamptons, but that he did urge Ensign to come clean.

I think something fishy is going on. Why would Ensign try to pay off the Hamptons? Admission of an affair is damaging but not fatally, IMO. Do the Hamptons have more dirt? Why would Coburn urge Ensign to pay off the Hamptons? Perhaps it was just misguided advice but the more the stories change the more questions get raised.