As Cpl. Radar O'Reilly once said, "WAIT FOR IT!"

the first phrase that comes to my mind is "how tragically sick these people's sex lives are especially due to the bullshit religious values that inflict guilt, psych torture, misogynistic patriarchy, and more..."

praise jeebus the republican -- he can do no wrong... pathetic.

Oh... So it was boring, "vanilla" disgusting hypocrisy! Well, that's OK then. Move along, nothing to see here.

Actually, the most vanilla of the 'sex scandals' in that list was Edwards': just an old-fashioned case of cheating on his wife. What's going on with Ensign is certainly less 'vanilla' than that.

If the Vitter scandal was so comparatively juicy, why am I still helping to pay Vitter's salary?

Just another installment of IOKIYAR.

Let's face it: If Ensign had a D after his name instead of an R, this scandal would be the only thing any media talking head was covering. CNN would have its entire political panel going 24-7, speculating endlessly on when, exactly, his resignation would be submitted. Editorial pages across the country would be screaming for him to resign, while Rush and O'Rielly demand to know why a special prosecutor has not been named and a Grand Jury called to investigate the obvious crimes that have been committed. The circus would not stop until he resigned in disgrace--and even then it would continue to hound him.

But, Ensign's a Republican. So, nothing to see here.

Move along, there's nothing here. It's not a 'real scandal' because there are no young boys or democrats involved in the sex.

Using federal dollars to pay off the other family is no big deal. It's not like Ensign is a dumbocrap or anything disgusting like that. It's not like Ensign used his position of power to get sex and have the government pay for it. It's not like he fired the employees when he didn't need the sex any longer.

Move along, there's nothing here.

The piece quotes an expert from a D.C. crisis management firm, calling the controversy "really vanilla."

Well, first of all, not so much, because Ensign was sleeping with the wife of an employee.

But the significance of yet another Republican affair is not the relative degree of, ah, alternative sexuality it displays, but rather the blatant hypocrisy. Ensign was a member of the Promise Keepers and otherwise put himself forward as a moral paragon, from which position he advocated restricing other people's sexual freedom.

"Adultery for me, but not for thee" is not a swell position to take, but it seems to apply to many prominent Republicans.

Just because Ensign is more "vanilla" than Vitter or Foley shouldn't give him a free pass from condemnation.

So, there is now a rating system for political affairs? Hmmm, do we begin with Profumo because of the possible national security issue? Does Vitter rate higher due to his wife wearing a leopard fabric and "Standing by Her Man"?

Ah, the coming Mea Culpas at the next Promise Keepers event. John, if you had simply remained a veternarian, few would even know of this. You wanted the lime light; you got it.

Something about this affair smells fishy. Charitably Ensign was having problems at home. Mrs. Hampton found out and moved in. When Ensign reconciled with his wife the affair ended. So far so vanilla. But that is where the story becomes interesting. Not only did Ensign shed himself of Mrs. Hampton, he dumped the entire Hampton family. That implies they all found out. How? Telling Mr. Hampton and the son are not something that either the Senator or Mrs. Hampton would want. Were all of the Hamptons in on the affair? After all there is a strong rumor that Mr. Hampton has been trying to blackmail Ensign. Was this all a big con concocted by the Hampton family to gain advantage over the Senator? This whole thing smells of a bad movie.

It's boring because nobody really knows who Ensign is, even though he's a Senator. Quit the shrill non-sense that it's because he's a Republican. The media follows juicy stories - period. I read the opposite non-sense on conservative blogs all the time.

Plus there's something far more interesting in the news, in case you haven't noticed.

It is amazing what Republicans can get away with.

Ensign had his mistress and her family on the public payroll AND arranged for further "private" employment.

But, no, there will be no investigation, no resignation, because not only is Ensign sorry about the affair but, look, he's really the victim here. The husband was trying to blackmail him!

Thinking about the ridiculousness of Ensign's activities during this affair reminds me of a novel by Donald E. Westlake called A Likely Story.

My biggest problem with this whole thing is the shuddering and vomitous sensation that comes over me looking at a picture of Ensign and imagining him in the throes of ecstasy. Ewwwww!

Yeah, and wouldn't you like to know the details of the "understanding" that Ensign and his wife came to after she discovered the affair.

Has anyone looked at whether assets have been transferred to Ensign's wife's sole ownership and control?

Movie? Hmmm, Kevin Spacey as the lowered Ensign? Stephen Root as the aggrieved Mr Hampton? ("He took my stapler, er, my wife") Female roles up for grabs. Plus, must work Lassie into this, somehow.

Two weeks ago this guy was planning on running for president.

I want to know what non-working part of these guys' cognitive processes disallows them from facing the extremely high likelihood that their affairs will be found out, and that people who have made a hobby of moralizing and preaching against other politicians' affairs are even likelier to be publicly busted.

Let's face it: If Ensign had a D after his name instead of an R, this scandal would be the only thing any media talking head was covering. CNN would have its entire political panel going 24-7, speculating endlessly on when, exactly, his resignation would be submitted.

Pretty much. The media spent all of 1998 and much of 1999 focusing on a brief tryst that Bill Clinton had. Using the standards espoused in this article that tryst would have been even more minor than this.

But no, there are two standards. Consider that in 2001 two young female employees of Congressmen were killed under suspicious circumstances. In both cases there were rumors of an affair between the Congressman and the victim. In one case the scandal was 24x7 news for most of the year. It seemed that CNN changed their name to the "Condit News Network" for the summer. In the other case the scandal was quickly hushed up, with only minor, brief local coverage. The Congressman then quietly chose not to run for re-election and he was rewarded with a prime position on cable news.

Yes, we are talking about Joe Scarborough here. Look it up.

Two standards.

For a family values man the hypocrisy by Senator Ensign is indeed nothing out of the ordinary. But the bi-weekly payments to Hampton junior aggravate Ensign's violation of paragraph #2 among what Mark Kleiman has listed as 'the well-known rules':

1. Thou shalt not commit adultery.
2. Keep your pecker off the payroll.
3. People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.
4. Don't get caught.

And if this is all bland vanilla, why do the members of the family values crowd, before they succumb to the temptations of the flesh, always make such a big deal out of emphasizing that this is not a depravity they'd ever stoop to?

When will the MSM conclude that even for their most ardent proponents family values are pretty negotiable after all?

I think this is what you call moving the goal posts once the other team is close to the goal line.

The WaPo story shows the Villagers circling the wagons to protect one of their own.

Not important!!!
I smell a multi-million dollar lawsuit, not just against Ensign, but the federal government.

Mrs. Hampton can say he forced her into a relationship to keep her job, sexual harassment. The son/husband or all could say unemployment was retaliatory.

And yes, there's always a double standard with the GOP. Example, Sarah Palin caused a lot of racial upheavals and hatred during her campaign against our President.

Yet, David Letterman make a joke about her daughter and she has a s--t fit. Never mind the fact she has rapists and meth addicts running around her state that would be more of a threat to her daughter.

For some reason, the GOP like to cause chaos and confusion with people. "Misery loves company" doesn't do them any good.

Think about it, you never really see the GOP with their spouses until they're in some sort of political trouble. Maybe their spouses have seen a side to them worse than we'd ever see.

I'm in favor of recriminalizing adultery in states which refuse to allow same-sex marriage. If the "right to marry" is so precious and sacred and special that we can ignore the constitution and equal protection clauses - while granting special rights to those who we do allow to marry - then it follows that breaking the marriage contract should automatically make it void and result in the loss of those rights.

It seems patently rediculous to argue, on the one hand, how "sacred" and "important" the institution of marriage is, and yet on the other hand, do a nudge-nudge-wink-wink look-away when people who are given special legal rights and status via marriage treat their marriage vows as a joke.

At one point Ensign said he wouldn't so much as ride in a car alone with a woman who wasn't his wife. That indicates that this thing involves group sex or at least someone watching them get it on.

At one point Ensign said he wouldn't so much as ride in a car alone with a woman who wasn't his wife. That indicates that this thing involves group sex or at least someone watching them get it on.

This is a failure of imagination, my friend. "Not riding in a car alone" does not preclude them doing it in a parked car behind one or more of the constituent services offices.

I wonder what his mistress thinks of this characterization of Ensign by the Las Vegas
Review-Journal.

"Sen. Ensign remains one of the more principled spokesmen now on the Washington stage for a government limited in size and intrusiveness into our lives.�

Double entrendres galore!

Sounds like Rocky Road.

If you really want to see something awful, go over to TPM and take a look at their slideshow of the "house" the "employee/lovers" lived in - the one they're underwater on now, which is why hubby tried to blackmail Ensign.

Only a Republican could have that much bad taste in one place - it's a critical mass of crap? - and I am sure it could only be topped by the variety of ugly-ass Republicanmobile (aka SUV) they drive.

I'm with you TCinLA:

"in vino veritas" over the door to the wine
'cellar'. Priceless.

Personally, I don't think Ensign's wife has actually forgiven him. Where's the video of her "standing by her man", looking as if she'd just been dragged through Hell and back? She's hiding something, I tells ya!

Maybe French Vanilla

The younger Hampton, 19, was paid $5,400 before he left the Ensign office in August last year, Federal Election Commission records show.

The bi-weekly payments to the 19-year-old employee ended when the affair ended.

"sometimes pimpin' is tough"
--MARQUES HOUSTON

I took a look at the slide show of the Hampton's crib. It's decor shouts loudly "Las Vegas whorehouse." Whoever decorated that nightmare should be sent to Gitmo.

Mr. Hampton tried to save it from foreclosure by blackmailing Ensign? He should have been happy to see it go back to the bank.

Sorry, I don't think Mr. Hampton tried to blackmail Ensign.

First of all, if Mr. Ensign was a "regular" guy, Mr. Hampton would probably be sitting in jail for beating the crap out of Ensign.

Ensign should keep his house out of foreclosure. Afterall, he slept with the man's wife.

But who knows, maybe Ensign wants to have a movie of the week made about him.

If the house looks like a whore house, then maybe, this could be a bigger scandal than they are letting on. Nevada has legalized prostitution - this could be worse than the Spitzer ordeal.