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Ensign's Sex-Scandal Enabler?
In October 2007, when Senator Larry Craig (R-ID) announced he would finish his term after pleading guilty to soliciting sex with an undercover cop in a bathroom stall, Coburn joined Ensign and a number of other Republican senators in calling for Craig’s immediate resignation. “He ought to keep his word,” Coburn rumbled. Now, with Ensign at the center of an embarrassing sex scandal, Coburn has affected an unusually tolerant tone. His transformation from anti-sex crusader to adultery enabler has been overnight.
Because Coburn apparently knew about Ensign’s involvement with a sex partner other than his wife—and knew in February 2008, six months before Ensign said he broke off the affair—important questions remain about the advice he gave his friend, roommate, and Senate colleague. On June 19, I called John Hart, the ghostwriter of Coburn’s book-length denunciation of congressional corruption and decadence, Breach of Trust, and now Coburn’s press secretary, to ask him to provide his boss a series of questions about what transpired in his private conversations with Ensign. Hart did not answer his office line or cellphone after multiple attempts, so I left the following questions on his voicemail with a request for Coburn’s comments:
--Did Coburn urge Ensign not to use condoms? Did he ask Ensign if he used condoms with Cindy Hampton?
--Did Coburn urge Ensign to get tested for STDs including AIDS?
--Did Coburn show Ensign his Star Wars-themed slideshow on the dangers of having multiple sex partners?
--Coburn called on Larry Craig to quit the Senate. Now he has said about Ensign, “Lots of people make mistakes.” Does Coburn have a double standard? Or should Ensign quit the Senate immediately?
--Will Coburn continue to share a Capitol Hill apartment with Ensign or will Coburn move out?
--Does Coburn trust Ensign not to have sex with multiple partners again?
--Does Coburn believe that what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas?
Neither Hart nor Coburn have responded. So far, Coburn refuses to disclose to the public what he told Ensign and when he told him—or whether he told him over a pizza lunch.
Max Blumenthal is a senior writer for The Daily Beast and writing fellow at The Nation Institute, whose book, Republican Gomorrah (Basic/Nation Books), is forthcoming this summer. Contact him at maxblumenthal3000@yahoo.com.
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Max Blumenthal is a senior writer for The Daily Beast, writing fellow at The Nation Institute and author of Republican Gomorrah (Basic/Nation Books). Contact him at maxblumenthal3000@yahoo.com.
"He is a bright young man. Lots of people make mistates". Since when is a 51 year old considered a young man. Standing there with a head full of gray hair, it is kinda hard to pull that one off.
51 passes for young in the Republican party, given that most of its members are fat white male disgruntled senior citizens.
Let's not forget that the late Republican Congressman Henry Hyde referred to an affair he had when he was 41 as "a youthful indiscretion." I guess when he said it, 41 seemed like his youth.
Oh, I sure he pulls it off on occasion, even at 51.
Sorry.
A Typical Republican...it's BAD when a Democrat does it and get caught but a repug? Boys will boys and look he fessed up LOL This is why the Repugs are circiling the drain.
I'm curious which & how many Dems covered up Chris Dodd's real estate deals this decade, Barney Frank's whorehouse in the 80s and Diane Feinstein's husband's recent shady dealings with foreclosed housing?? Blumenthal needs to get the same kind of attention Black Eyed Peas gave girlieboy Perez Hilton over the weekend.
I think the contrast with Spizer is remarkable: a Democrat who could cope with the sins of his brethren left office - and remarkably successful career - at the drop of a girlfriend, while these hypocritical synchophantic moralists self justify themselves for personal gain and corporate wealth. That's a pretty sharp contrast.
Perhaprs you don't remember another sanctimonious hypocrite, Henry Hyde, describing his affair as a "youthful indiscretion" at the the tender age of 41.
Perhaps in Republican circles 50 is the new 12.
These conservative hypocrites make me sick. What a bunch of disgusting excuses for men, 'Christians', and 'leaders' of our country. It's also a huge part of what's wrong with the Republican Party and why, thank God, it's dying a slow death as it's been.
No PattyMR, It will never die. The Republican Party will live on, wherever hearts are moronic, miserly, hypocritical...or just plain evil.
Looks like the reason ole Tommy didn't squeal is that he himself is getting some on the side.
Are he an Ensign washing each others backs in the shower ? Did they do DP on this woman? Seriously I see the adultery part as the least of this matters issues, the improper placing of people on the federal job roles and payment with campaign funds are all federal and state felony crimes, Coburns prior knowlege and assistance in any coverup would make him at the least an accesory before the fact as well as after the fact and perhaps a co- conspirator.
do you see the pattern ... somebody else does wrong (ie most people) you go after those evil doers or 'sinners' with a pitchfork with hopes of gouging out their eyes. if one of their own mess up...it is why cant we forgive this poor missunderstood sinner. these conservative christians have no morals just rules for OTHER people to follow so they can keep control over you. they are the true embodyments of evil if there ever was one.
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"At least he fessed up." This happened how long ago? The only reason he "fessed up" was because the husband of the married woman Sen. Ensign was banging out was going to fess up for him by taking the story to cable news organizations. These people are nothing but hypocrites. They love telling other people how they should live their lives, then go out and start sleeping with married women or trying to seduce teenage boys, or try to solicit gay sex in mens' bathrooms. I would not be surprised to find out that he impregnated this woman and then demanded she get an abortion. He even probably offered to do it himself.
Yup! He fessed up because he had to while, in the meantime, he acted like a beacon of light, guiding the rest of us to moral servitude. Big, stinking, fat hypo!!
What a stupid ass thing for Coburn have done nothing. Not only should he have lambasted Ensign, he should have publically decried Ensign's affair beating the husband to the punch. He is a double dog hypo!! What is in the water in OK?
Bill Clinton's actions were with a SINGLE adult female -- at least he didn't break up someone else's marriage like Ensign did -- and Coburn, like most of the religious/moral "wrong" has proven himself to be all about control, not about "morals" in any sense of the word.
For his "sin" of hypocrisy, I say Coburn should be forced to undergo anal intercourse with another male, with the choice of whether or not the other male uses a condom -- let's see what his stance on condom use would be then, in that particular situation???
Well, let's not rewrite history or the recent past. Clinton's "actions" have been with numerous females who may or may not have been classified as adults and who may or may not have been single. Clinton is the poster boy for sex addicts.
Ensign's sin is betrayal and hypocrasy. He betrayed his wife, his staff member and friend and everyone of the voters who bought into the self-rightous tripe he was selling. We came way to close to becoming a Theocracy under Bush and it is time to get the rest of the religious right out of government. These people are dangerous. If you doubt that carefully examine the Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld years.
It is truly a measure of the idiocy which is bringing our country to its knees that partisans on both sides of the aisle find it so easy to look at the faults of their opposing counterparts as being unique only to the "other" side. It would be nice if we were able to accurately characterize, as we do, Republicans as being hypocrites and Democrats as lacking any moral standards which might expose them to charges of hypocrisy.
Unfortunately, those kinds of views tell us more about the pathetic ignorance of those who hold them than they do about the people they judge.
Most particularly, it is pathetic that these sheep are led to pass judgment on people about whom they know nothing more than what two-bit whores who make a living stirring up sleaze choose to tell them. Whether it is Republican sleaze or Democrat sleaze to which these sheep are addicted, they are eager to believe the worst in people they don't know, but with whom they disagree.
It would be a lonely world if everyone simply chose to walk away from friends who revealed themselves to be hypocrites. In Washington, no one would have any friends. But, perhaps, many more dogs.
Amen.
Nicely stated.
This is a nice liberal media fragmentary grenade. Try to get anyone that was within smelling distinace...
I love the guy excusing Clinton for his actions with his College Intern....unreal.
No excuse for Ensign, conservative Nevada voters will tube him.
You won't see them in 12 years minimizing his indiscretions.
That doesn't align with current polls in Nevada or with the history of the religious right. They are way too busy involving themselves in judging and condemning others to pay attention to the trasgressions of their own.
It is reassuring to know that there are people in the world like xIntcat who can distance themselves from judging and condemning others -- except for judging and condemning the people with whom he disagrees (in this case Nevada's religious right). But, after all, they richly deserve condemnation while their judges (including xIntcat) are surely above reproach. Give me a F-ing break!
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Please watch your language. This allows people to protect themselves if they must. I wouldn't recommend it, but this is the United States of America. If they didn't allow regular citizens the option, only the ne'er do wells would be armed. The ne'er do wells don't care about gun controls.
pricklypear, I think joebloe's anger and foul language was prompted by Coburn's political play of inserting something totally irrelevant into a piece of legislation that was of major importance.
This Coburn guy is a bad actor, intelligent, but cunning, and a dangerous idealogue, with a moral compass that guides his decisions. Unfortunately the morality of his compass allows him to justify any action he may take if it furthers his anti-abortion, anti-gun control, anti-immigrant agenda.
A dangerous idealogue indeed!
You are right. Most of the remaining religious right are cognitively impaired, but Coburn is intelligent, cunning, manipulative and very likely the worst of the bunch.
The reason thiese Republican hypocrites are more insidious is because they stand in moral judgement of everyone else. Bill Clinton didn't wag his finger at us in judgement of us but, in denial of what he was up to. See, we Dems know that there is human frailty. But it's the Republicans who are all too willing to get into our bedrooms, and for us women, our uterus" and, our marriages passing judgement while ignoring their own hypocricy. This is why they are so offensive to many of us. Oh, and by the way, this idiot Coburn has offerred support for a bill presented by Rep. Bill Posey from Florida with 5 other house members for the Birther Bill. That's right, he's joined the wingnuts sponsoring a bill to require that all state and federal election candidates provide a copy of their birth certificate which Obama has done by the way. It's posted online. I'd said his credibility is officially history along with that of his party. I hope this story continues to have legs. Between Coburn's involvment and fox news' duplicity in this whole thing "you'll never convince me that they didn't tip Ensign off" I'm looking forward to the next few months. Drip, Drip, Drip! "Pass the Popcorn"!
I get it, you would be comforted if Republicans abandoned any pretense of standards with regard to sexual matters. You know, no standards -- no hypocrisy. Listen to yourself. If you believe that Democrats are not or cannot be hypocrites it must be that they either exist in a state of perfection, or that they have no standards by which they can fail. Not likely in the face of Sen. Edwards behavior -- unless you consider the marriage vows that he entered into and the relationship with his sainted wife that he perpetually trotted out for all to see. These people are human beings. They may not be fit for public service. But you are suggesting that beyond that, their friends, their "enablers", are not fit for public service.
Which brings us to Coburn the "enabler". Coburn may well be a misogynistic cretin by anyone standards. But an "enabler"? Perhaps for people with no moral foundation whatsoever who believe that every decision a public figure makes should be viewed through his skill to apply the correct political spin. People who believe that political expediency should always be the standard for everything they say and do -- including their friendships with others.
I'll tell you what I would find to be despicable beyond any measure. A public figure, Republican or Democrat who would abandon a friendship because it placed him or her on the wrong side of "correctness" for their chosen brand of politics.
But maybe you represent the new face of America. People who will choose and abandon friends based on a situation like this. I can say that anyone who would "tut, tut" about a person (Coburn or anyone else) maintaining a friendship in spite of a political point of view -- or even at times a personally held moral point of view, is guilty of the worst kind of "moralizing". Who the hell are you to pass judgment on a friendship about which you know nothing?
At the personal level, you do not know Sen. Coburn or Sen. Ensign. Sen. Ensign is apparently guilty of conduct which probably ought to disqualify him from public service. And other than from the rantings of people like you who can easily conflate any action of someone with whom you disagree into a fatal moral flaw, you know nothing whatsoever about Coburn's relationship to Ensign. Coburn's legislative record speaks for itself -- for better or worse. We are each entitled to draw whatever conclusions we wish from his record.
Your desire that this story "have legs" with regard to Coburn speaks worlds about you and people like you. Voyeurs, who relish in the personal tragedies of people with whom you do not agree. He richly deserves to rise or fall on his record. He richly deserves to rise or fall based on his personal behavior. But if friendship with people who do not hold our personal or moral values is a disqualifying trait, then nobody currently in office, not the least our President, is entitled to stay.
I had hoped that we debated and settled that argument last November.
My own thoughts are that Republican and Democratic leaders really don't have a moral high ground as is continually and frequently pointed out. If they must justify their laws they need better grounds than idealogy which they themselves don't follow. They need to be trustworthy, not hypocritical.
Be interesting to know how much time Coburn spent of von Brunn's website! Anyone who defends Coburn's loyalty to his "friend" might want to give some thought to how Ensign rewarded friendship. Remember the husband was a subordinate of Ensign and a long time "friend?"
You must be either young enough or naive enough to have never found yourself in the middle of the relationships between friends of yours which were any more complex than schoolyard infatuations. Shakespeare and the Greeks surely understood the dilemmas of complex relationships and the extreme tests they pose to morality, ethics and loyalty. Most of the responses here reflect a society whose understanding of these things doesn't quite rise to the level of sophistication of "illustrated novels".
The one true fact that we can all take away from this is that none of us has the remotest idea of the details of this mess which would allow us to make informed and mature judgments as to the relationships of any of the principals in this drama. Not you. And not me. And the most judgmental responses here seem to come from people who express the most revulsion for people who are judgmental.
I am simply observing that the sickest people in this discussion are the ones who seem to understand enough to conclude that Coburn's only moral and ethical option was to rat out someone that he describes as a "friend" (and in the context that others in this mess might also be friend too) But maybe you are one of those people who would be inclined to run straight to your best friend's wife and/or lover's husband to rat out your friend's indiscretion. It may be your view that this is the Christian thing to do. It is not a view shared by anyone else that I know who professes to be a Christian.
However pompous most Christians may be about passing judgment on the behavior of strangers (and God knows that there is no shortage of sanctimonious Christians), I know very, very few who are so sanctimonious that they would throw their friends under the bus. For that matter, I know very, very few non-Christians who routinely and pompously betray friendships. Except for voyeurs who take pleasure in other people's suffering, I frankly don't know and wouldn't want to know people who might find themselves in the middle of someone else's affair which was not of their own making who would not seek to exercise discretion in the hope that their friends on all sides of the affair might find for themselves the best possible outcome.
What right does the public have to know of the private trysts of public officials? Do they not have the right to be judged by their professional public behaviour, not their boorish private behaviour?
Not if they have made a career
Of condemning the 'boorish private behavior'
Of others.
Rita! How was the weekend? Good I hope.
Are you still on that "I don't care if they are shagging children and robbing old ladies, but if they are hypocrites, then hang 'em high!" kick?
..and yes Bill did finger wag quite a bit, until they found about the dress. "I did not have sexual relations with that woman...ms. Lewinsky..."
Please, they are all scum bags, stow the outrage on this one. The voters of Nevada will ditch him for sure.
These two senators are public officials on public pay. They have ethical and legal obligations private citizens do not have.
Some corporations will terminate an employee's contract for consorting with an underling. The military also have speific rules about fraternizing with a lower-ranked oficer, etc.
This Ensign mess is not just a sexual escapade. The dear senator has legal and ethical boundaries with respect to his staff. Our dear senator is a public official that has to anwer to the Senate and to the public at large. Methiks the senator crossed a big fat legal line.
Thank you, Piktor.
This assessment of the situation is accurate, in my opinion. This was my beef with Bill Clinton, his behavior with underling Monica Lewinsky.
This, my fellow Americans is sexual harassment in the workplace.
You are welcome, Pricklypear. The issue with Bubba was he lied in a deposition to a judge. That got him disbarred and had to pay a fine in Arkansas. It also got him impeached by Congress.
Government officials have duties and legal boundaries. Mr. Ensign and Mr. Oklahoma can pretend boys will be boys but they serve at the pleasure of the voting public. This escapade should make everybody aware that these two jerks handle all kinds of highly sensitive matters of State.
Is the public trust well served by this pair of senatorial morons?
Yes, perjury. He was impeached by the House but not by the Senate.
"It depends on what the meaning of the word is is"
The Clintons. Couldn't tell the truth to save their soul.
-
"Is the public trust well served by this pair of senatorial morons?"
Personally, I say no. Just don't hold Republicans and Democrats to the same standard, that's all.
His professional behavior included vicious condemnation of the Tryst of his fellow public officials. Feigned hypocritical outrage and demands that they resign. It appears that only applies to those other congressmen. Afterall, he is entitiled.
I would not care at all what they do with their genitals IF THEY DIDN'T MAKE A CAREER OUT OF LEGISLATING ABOUT MINE. Every one of these phonies has made his career out of being anti-choice, anti-abortion, anti-condom, even anti-oral-contraceptives, which they consider abortifacients. They have made a career about talking about how marriage is so perfect and holy, those dirty gay people should not be allowed to have it.
FURTHERMORE, most of them are using taxpayer resources to pay for their affairs. Mark Sanford swiped a state car for five days and faked up a "trade mssion" to Argentina to visit his mistress there; who knows what his excuse was for meeting her in New York, but the taxpayers of South Carolina paid for it. John Ensign used taxpayer money to double the salary of his sex partner once they started sleeping together, and he used Republican party money to pay off her 19-year-old son, AND to double HER salary again at the side job she held there!
We the public have every right to know what these frauds who ran for office on the grounds of "superior morality" and "family values" are really up to. They're not just cheating on their wives and families; they are cheating the electorate, too. As well as breaking laws against prostitution and using taxpayer and/or donor money to do it.
The really scary thing? He's the better of Oklahoma's two Senators.
Shame on the people of Oklahoma for electing, over and over again a pervert like Coburn !!!!!
the oklahoma people just do not seem very bright.......is it religion or their educational system ?....maybe in breeding ?
its very sad
Oklahoma is the only state in the US that makes me glad to be a Texan.
Seems like most states that fall below the Mason Dixon line have serious issues with the 20th and 21 centuries. I challenge anyone to name one serious minded, articulate, moderate elected official that hails from "the south."
As for Coburn and Ensign, they are just cowards and hypocrites of the worst kind.
Let's just boycott Oklahoma, forever.
Coburn isn't the only one who may be complicit. The husband contacted Fox News (the news organization that seems to hold itself to a higher moral standard and demonizes the rest of us "sinners")) and asked them to uncover the deceit. Rather than investigating the story, they apparently informed the Senator and perhaps that's the reason why he came out. What a Sanctimonious Hypocritical lot.
My IQ is
drop
ing
just
reading some of these comments of supposedly intelligent people.
Don't worry it can't get any lower
That's funny!
Cheap. Is that your best joke?
No you're my best joke
It's worrisome to know that Coburn knew about the affair and sit tight on it. As many have said in here, if they weren't such sanctimonious SOBs, I wouldn't care. Now, I wonder if Coburn has been banging someone else who is not his wife.
The bigger issue is that trying to hide their moral failings leaves them wide open to blackmail not just by irate husbands but by others who wish to pilfer the public coffers.
The question is, who didn't know about it?
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What is wrong with the people in Oklahoma, they have one senator that is condoning adultery and another that is just an idiot.
If vulgarity and swearing are your most pointed negative comments - well, good luck to you.
I live in Oklahoma. Tom Coburn is not the best of the lot. We do not have anything "intelligent or rational" working in the Federal Government. While Tom Coburn was running a few years ago an article was in the Tulsa World concerning black women having their tubes tied after giving birth. These women did not give permission to Dr. Coburn, but he decided for them that, "It was for the best".
If you want Coburn or any of our other fabulous politicians, please ask them to move to your state.
Men such as these are always "The Deciders".
We also have a criminal case going on in Muskogee (in Dr. Coburn's district). Two people decided to kill a six week old puppy and skin it to make a belt. A Jack Russell Terrier. Shot it ten times. You may find this in the Muskogee Phoenix newspaper. Type Jack Russell Terrier in the search engine and a list of stories will come up. Go to the bottom and start with the warrants prompt. You will be delighted.
hibiscus, I have known many people from Oklahoma, and have to say that they have all been very nice, caring souls. But, when it comes to politics, they tend to just leave it to those more interested in it. This allows cretins like Coburn to assend to power. Their other guy, Inhofe is just as bad.
Unfortunately, the Oklahoman's choices in political representatives do not fairly represent the state's caring nature. But they do represent the staid, cultural structure of wanting to keep things like they always were.
WOW....Wife and Girlfriend gonna write a book, 51 ways to cheat!!! 51 ways to kiss ?? 51 ways to hold hands??? yikes
LOVE Coburn's comment about Ensign, "He is a bright young man. Lots of people make mistakes."
REALLY? Hard to reconcile that comment, Coburn, with your stand against a "bright young man" called Clinton. At that point, when the Dems were chagrined, you didn't cut him any slack. Now you help keep the secret of a 51-year-old because he made a mistake.
BOTH of you ought to be kicked out of office because of the ethics violations (independent of Ensign's affair) that cloud this episode. What a pair of HYPOCRITES.
Well, I guess young is relative and when the average age in this current senate is 63, maybe 51 qualifies as say younger than the 70 and 80 year olds.
Don't forget, anti-abortion hero, married man Congressman Henry Hyde of Illinois referred to his long-time adultery with a married woman, a mother of four, whom he kept in a love nest apartment -- where Hyde got the money for that is a question which should have been investigated while there was still a chance of putting him in prison for it -- anyway, maintained an adulterous relationship with her until her marriage was destroyed and her sons left fatherless -- and when Hyde, a "family values" "moral majority" guy was FINALLY confronted about it, he pointed out he was only 42 and that this was all "a youthful mistake."
Forty-two. Fifty-one. Are these guys still paying half price at the movies?
Its gotta be tough when a close friend is in that situation, especially one that you thought would never be in a situation like that. That said, get out Ensign for being a dirty hypocrite, and get out Coburn for keeping his dirty secret.
Thank you.
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