Ensign Strikes His Colors

John Ensign, the junior and juvenile Republican senator from Nevada, has announced that he will not seek re-election to the U.S. Senate in 2012, and it wasn't so surprising. Ensign, who had an affair with Cindy Hampton, one of his fundraising aides, is under investigation by the Senate Ethics Committee. The committee hopes to determine whether Ensign violated Senate rules by giving Cindy Hampton's husband and Ensign's ex-friend Doug Hampton lobbying work and then encouraging him to connect lobbying clients with the senator's office. Ensign's parents, meanwhile, gave money to the Hamptons - $96,000, which Ensign's lawyer described as a gift. This was all apparently done in the effort to keep news of the affair from leaking. Doug Hampton himself may be under investigation for similarly violating lobbying rules by steering clients to Ensign per the senator's suggestions. Hampton has suggested that the investigation of Ensign by the Senate - the Justice Department has determined that no criminal charges against the senator are necessary - is costing the government money and time, and Ensign should just resign his seat right now.

Wait: Ensign's parents got mixed up in all this?

Anyway, it's a big mess. Meanwhile, Republican Representative Dean Heller has become the favorite for the 2012 Republican nomination for Ensign's seat; his fellow congressional delegate Shelley Berkley is the favorite for the Democratic nomination. While Heller may have the edge as the national momentum is still with the Republicans, the growth of Nevada's Hispanic population - and Harry Reid's unexpectedly impressive performance in winning a fifth term over Republican challenger Sharron Angle - could help tilt this seat to the Democrats despite Ensign's retirement.

And Sharron Angle may be back for another crack at a Senate seat. Remember, Ensign almost beat Reid in 1998, then picked up Nevada's other Senate seat - vacated by Richard Bryan - in 2000. So there's a precedent here.

Regarding Ensign, Margaret Carlson of Bloomberg News suggests that the senator might have survived the sex scandal the way Louisiana Republican senator David Vitter survived his own prostitution scandal - by confessing publicly and apologizing. Carlson pointed out that it wasn't the crime that brought down Ensign, but the cover-up. After Watergate, you'd think people (people other than Vitter, anyway) would figure that out.