When you consider that Nevada's other Senator is Harry Reid -- man, that state's about as stuck for impressive politicians as South Carolina or Kentucky, innit?

Ah, back to the summer of '64, listening to the refrains of "Hush, hush, Sweet Charlotte" - Only now, it is "Hush, hush, Sweet Cynthia"

Ensign should have stayed a veterinarian. He might have been able to neuter his passions. However, how nice that his adopted parents run a casino empire.

When you consider that Nevada's other Senator is Harry Reid -- man, that state's about as stuck for impressive politicians as South Carolina or Kentucky, innit?

They're still better off than Oklahoma.

Question on another family values Senator, how much did Vitter spend for his indescretions?

"Better off than Oklahoma"

Ah, "Looner Sooner, looner Sooner".

This really is too precious. I wonder, how long is the list of unkept promises sworn by Promise Keeper Ensign?
I honestly don't care about his private life, but the praticing to preaching discord is truly off the charts. What a fool, and a jerk.
Let's hope this squalid mess gets Ensign demoted to buck private, no class.

How much did Vitter pay? Well, it depends on whether he was able to get that leopard skin dress for his wife at Macy's or Goodwill?

By the Laws of Fundagelical Xenophobish Reversibility, the denizens of Republikhanistan will declare that (1) Ensign is human, and therefore prone to failure from time to time---and (2) that anyone who's not ready, willing, and able to forgive him unconditionally is inherently un-Christian, and therefore very, very un-American.

Although there is that little black book (the one that the Fundagelical Xenophobish Reversibility-ists keep beating people over the head with, due to some sort or another of a literal interpretation), with its suggestion that he be forcibly dragged from the Senate chamber, out onto the Capitol steps, and summarily stoned to death for his transgression....

"When you consider that Nevada's other Senator is Harry Reid -- man, that state's about as stuck for impressive politicians as South Carolina or Kentucky, innit?"

Hey! Don't forget Arizona. We're stuck with McCain and Kyl. True, at least we've got Raul Grijalva.

If you want to pay off your mistress $1.2 million, do you just write 100 $12,000 checks? What's the point?

Whaaat !!! no Sarah articles yet today...I'm so starving for Sarah news.

The NY Times is wrong on the tax law. No true gift is taxable to the recipient. The donor must report gifts in excess of $12,000 (as of 2007 and 2008; it's now $13,000) to any individual in any calendar year, and that excess amount diminishes the amount that the donor can give tax free in his lifetime or leave tax free in his estate (there's one total amount for gifts and estate).

The lawyer says the gifts were limited to $12,000, but also says that they were all made in April 2008, to four individuals and they totalled $96,000. Apparently the lawyer is claiming that two gifts of $12,000 each were made that month to each of the four individuals. But the limit is per calendar year. I wonder if four of the checks were backdated to 2007, which of course would not be kosher.

Money that you pay someone to do something, e.g. keep quiet, is not a gift. It's income to the recipient. That's probably what this was (which would mean no gift tax consequences), but since it was done on behalf of Ensign, there are congressional ethical and reporting issues raised. It also may be consdiered a $96,000 gift to Ensign, and therefore there would be gift tax reporting consequences to the donor.

How long before FOX runs (D-NV)next to Ensigns name?

And as far as his being in political jeopardy, I think the Republikanistan province of South Evangelina pretty much answered how Republicans view Biblical transgressions by other Republicans.

To echo what VinnyD said, the New York Times is completely wrong about the $12,000. The Washington Monthly shouldn't quote the misinformation. (If there is any question about this, any tax accountant or tax lawyer can confirm the factual inaccuracy.) The error doesn't change the story in a material way, but it does open the New York Times and the Washington Monthly to charges of deliberate exaggeration.

VinnyD says: The lawyer says the gifts were limited to $12,000, but also says that they were all made in April 2008, to four individuals and they totalled $96,000. Apparently the lawyer is claiming that two gifts of $12,000 each were made that month to each of the four individuals. But the limit is per calendar year. I wonder if four of the checks were backdated to 2007, which of course would not be kosher.

What you're overlooking is that each of Ensign's parents could have given $12K to each of the four Hampton family members without exceeding the estate and gift tax annual exemption. And apparently that's how they played it.

But aside from that, declaring it as a tax-exempt gift under the estate and gift tax law doesn't affect in the least the question of whether it was hush money.

Now we have this rationalization by the Christian Science Monitor (via Yahoo) of why Republicans are forgiven while Democrats remain disgraced:

Their survival isn't in spite of the GOP's evangelical base, but rather because of it. And while liberals tend to see continued support as hypocrisy from both the politician and his supporters, what matters to conservative Republicans is not so much the behavior of their leaders as the repentance they show after their fall from grace.

So Republicans know how to repent, while Democrats don't? IMO, they're just better at fleecing the flock.

TAXES
This amount had to be choose by Hampton's, because there are no tax implications in giving gifts, it's the receiving that the IRS cares about. I can just about guarantee the Hampton's have a bunch of undeclared income and if the state of Nevada has an income tax, they will be looking for their cut as well.

Everyone seems to be taken the Hamption's at their word. The took $96k or $121k hush money in amounts small enough to stay below the radar, then went public, first Fox, then anyone who will listen. Either the husband is bat ass crazy or they asked for more funds and Ensign told him to suck it.

If I were the Ensigns, I would sue to get my Hush money back. Extortion is illegal and if it wasn't extortion, they failed to hold their end of the deal, which presumably was to move and keep quiet.

The husband is getting this family into some pretty deep shit.

related fake news

SUB-ROSA NEWS

ENSIGN PARENTS DONATE TO SANFORD PARAMOUR

Michael Ensign, father of embattled Senator John Ensign, disclosed today that he and his wife had made gifts to the mistress of South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford. The gifts, in the form of travelers checks in $12,000 increments, had been mailed to Argentine reporter Maria Bellen Chapur and her family.

Mr. Ensign explained that the gifts were just part of the pattern of generosity that had earlier led them to offer gifts to videographer Rielle Hunter, whose affair with Senator John Edwards had engendered so much sympathy on their part.

While well known for its philanthropy, the Ensign family has apparently turned down the request from the city of Los Angeles to help pay for the extra security needed for the Michael Jackson memorial.

homer www.altara.blogspot.com

How did Ensign pursue Mrs.Hampton? All of the descriptions seem to ignore her wishes in this. Did she want to have the affair? Was she forced into it? Why did her husband stay with her, knowing about the affair?

Wonder if the children who received the gifts were minors at the time.

Um, aren't we talking about tax EVASION here? If, as it appears, the 96K was either hush money or payment for (sexual) services rendered by Mrs. Hampton, isn't calling it a gift and laundering it through Ensign's parents a crime? It seems to me you could make a strong case for that...

But as we know from Rush "the king of poop" and Mike the savage wiener, the Democrats somehow tricked Ensign into doing these embarrassing things (just like their constant hounding forced Sarita Palon from office.) How dastardly!

None of this reflects well on Ensign. But there are lots of parents who would do questionable things to keep a child out of trouble, even self-inflicted trouble, regardless of the child's age - even if they believed their bailing out their child was morally or legally questionable.

Completely surreal exchange on this issue on the Situation Room last night with James Carville and the guy whose name I can't remember but who is a Republican "strategist" that looks like a sleazy lawyer for the mob:

Wolf to mob lawyer: "Isn't this bad for Ensign?"

mob lawyer: "Actually Wolf, Ensign is more popular than Nancy Pelosi, so the voters of Nevada just don't seem to think this is so bad."

Wolf to Carville: "Are affairs wrong?

Carville: "All sorts of Democrats have affairs Wolf, they're not wrong. It's only Republicans who think they are wrong.

mob lawyer: "See Wolf, there's an example of how Democrats have no values and don't want to hold anybody to account. Republicans want a society where values are preached there is accountability."

So Tony the Hat tells us that the Ensign affair doesn't matter, Carville agrees with him, and the shyster uses Carville's agreement to show how Democrats have no values and are ruining society.

And there was no discussion or analysis of the monies paid to Ensign's mistress. I've seen witch trials where there was more focus on the facts of the case than this.

More than 100,000?? A husband is whining about infidelity and pocketing big bucks at the same time. Everyone involved seems as sleazy as they come.

How did Ensign pursue Mrs.Hampton? All of the descriptions seem to ignore her wishes in this. -mlm

She's a Republican woman and as she has no control of her own body or will of her own and must subjugate herself to the whims of whatever man she happens to be around.

Really, this is her husband's fault for letting her ever be alone with another man, or leave the house at all for that matter.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gift_tax_in_the_United_States

The limit is actually $13,000 and it is per year. If the checks were distributed in April I guess you could claim $12,000 on the previous tax year and $12,000 on the current just as you can for certain other tax exempt contributions but the whole thing shouts tax fraud to me particularly since Attorney Coggins says the original amount was in the form of a single $96,000 check. I am sure a clever attorney could devise a way to make this technically legal (limited power of attorney from the Ensigns to whoever the check was made out to?). But the whole thing reeks.

'used her for my own pleasure'?

Did they get him to write this under hypnosis?

How do people this retarded get this much money in the first place?

If money was exchanged, doesn't that make Mrs. Hampton a prostitute? I believe prostitution's legal in Nevada.

I don't understand why so many of you are having such trouble with the 96K. Anybody can give anyone up to 13K per calendar year, period, no questions asked, no big deal. Wealthy parents and grandparents do it all the time, partly to draw down their estates over time and save their kids taxes later. There isn't anything underhanded or sneaky or illegal or anything about it. Some parents and grandparents give kids $5 on their birthday, others give 13K. It's such a no big deal, on its own, and it's no use hounding them over the legalities of it - there's no there there on that argument.

Hound him on his sanctimonious, holier-than-thou Republishit sleaziness - there's enough there!

Um, I don't think Ensign's parents are giving the money to their kids or grandkids, or else this scandal would manage to get even weirder. The payments are relevant not because he may have broken tax laws (and apparently he did not, although just because it's not illegal doesn't mean it's not sneaky or underhanded), but because the manner in which they were given suggests a coverup. Of course he should be called out for his moral hypocrisy, but simply cheating on your wife doesn't usually require subsequent resignation (exceptions being involvement of prostitutes, if you're a Democrat, and involvement of people of the same sex, if you're a Democrat). If Ensign paid his mistress and her family a great deal of money, and tried to conceal it by having his parents make the payments for him and only giving exactly as much as they could without it showing up in tax records, that takes the scandal to another level and makes his resignation much more likely.

mlm said - "How did Ensign pursue Mrs.Hampton? All of the descriptions seem to ignore her wishes in this. Did she want to have the affair? Was she forced into it? Why did her husband stay with her, knowing about the affair?"

That echoes what I was coming here to post. The weirdest thing about the reporting on this entire story is that Cindy Hampton seems to be treated as virtually an inanimate object, like Ensign and Hampton were playing some sort of Capture The Flag game, with the C Streeters as referees - 'no, John, give Doug his wife back.'

The John Ensign and Mark Sanford stories are near impossible for Larry Flynt to upstage.

A grown man who's parents apparently bail him out of fixes. A wife who is pressuring him to stay in office (don't give up a good thing). These people are all for sale! Even if the taxpayers could afford him and the trailer park clan, who wants the Bundys making decisions on their behalf. SCARY!

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