Why wont Senator Ensign resign

Why won’t Senator Ensign resign?

By: David Phillips

You may have heard or seen Senator Ensign’s (R-NV) exploits in the newspapers or on TV over the last few months. Ensign has admitted to having an extramarital affair with Cindy Hampton a campaign staffer, Ensign has admitted to his parents paying off his mistress with $96,000 dollars in hush money (his lawyer says it was a gift), and we have learned that the husband of his mistress Doug Hampton, also a campaign staffer found other employment with the help of Senator Ensign as a lobbyists who then turned around and lobbied Senator Ensign, which is against the law.

When in Washington DC, Senator Ensign lives with a fundamentalist Christian cult at the “C” street house, a former monastery which has been converted into a dormitory for politicians. This is the same place Governor Mark Sanford (R-SC) lives while he is in DC.

The Senate Ethics committee (an oxymoron) is looking into the matter and the Department of Justice is considering a criminal investigation against Senator John Ensign.

Senator Ensign continues to go about his daily business as if nothing is wrong with him or his job, and his possibility of going to prison. In 2006 another republican and former House member by the name of Bob Ney (R-OH) plead guilty to similar charges (30 months in prison) that Ensign could face if the Justice Department follows through with an investigation related to the unlawful lobbying done by Doug Hampton, who by the way has admitted he broke this law.

Last week Senator Ensign voted against an amendment that would prevent the federal government from funding contractors whose employee contracts prevent workers from pursuing allegations of rape against co-workers.

Nevada Governor Jim Gibbons (R-NV) has opened the door for Ensign to resign by saying that he would not appoint himself to the seat or the current front runner for Governor, Brian Sandoval (R-NV) who plans on running against Jim Gibbons for Governor. A resent poll conducted by the Review-Journal show that Sandoval would beat Gibbons by a 2-1 margin.

If Ensign were to resign now or anytime up to the filing period for candidates next March, Gibbons’ appointee as well as any other candidates would have to run in next Novembers election which would allow the winner to finish Ensign‘s term which ends in 2012. If Ensign were to resign after the filing period Gibbons would still name a replacement, but Nevada’s republican party would select which names would be placed on next November’s ballot to finish out Ensign‘s term.

From a democratic point of view Ensign will continue to be a weight that pulls down the republican party as long as he is in office just as Governor Mark Sanford, Governor Jim Gibbons and Senator David Vitter (R-LA) will be because they too are admitted adulterers.

Maybe Ensign feels that he’s in good company and should not have to resign because no one else in his party has resigned under similar circumstances, or maybe it is his fundamentalist cult that has kept him from resigning because they have told he shouldn’t resign and that it’s OK for him to cheat and lie.

For the good of Nevada and its citizens the right thing for Senator Ensign to do would be to resign now and for the republican party in Nevada which is in a disarray, they too should urge the Senator to resign as soon as possible for their own sake.　