300 WORDS OR LESS: 06.17.09

Ensign's Disgrace

Scratch the name of Sen. John Ensign from the list of potential 2012 Republican presidential contenders.
That was David Weigel's reaction to the revelation that Ensign had conducted an adulterous affair with a campaign aide, and it's certainly an accurate assessment. In reporting Ensign's admission, The New York Times noted that the Nevada senator had recently visited Iowa, scene of the crucial first caucus, but if he was "testing the waters," it's now unlikely he'll be returning for a swim.
The blogosphere went ballistic at the big scoop -- first reported by the Washington Post's Chris Cillizza -- but Ensign's adultery apparently had not been very hush-hush. Shortly after the story went online, one conservative Twittered that the senator's affair "the worst-kept secret in Washington."
If initial press accounts are accurate, the Ensign marriage had been troubled for some time -- the Post noted that the senator took an unexplained two week "personal" leave in 2002. The senator says his affair lasted eight months, ending in August 2008, during a period when Ensign and his wife were reportedly separated (and while Ensign was chairman of the Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee).
Here the story takes an especially ugly turn. The woman with whom the senator dallied was also married -- to one of Ensign's senate aides. And, at least according to the Politico, the woman's husband left the senator's staff in May 2008 with "a severance package" of unknown amount. Later, however, the cuckolded ex-staffer sought additional payment, a demand that reportedly caused Ensign to make his public admission.
Ensign had called Republican colleague Sen. Larry Craig a "disgrace" after Craig's 2007 airport restroom arrest.
If Craig was a "disgrace," what is Ensign?
-- RSM