Ensign shocker is latest GOP setback

By LIZ SIDOTI

Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON — It’s just about the last thing the beleaguered Republican Party needed: a Christian conservative with national aspirations admitting an extramarital affair with an ex-staffer.

Add Nevada Sen. John Ensign’s infidelity admission to an ever-growing list of woes for the out-of-power GOP.

One senator’s predicament hardly condemns an entire party. But the episode is an unwelcome distraction as the Republicans, their ranks shrinking, seek a turnaround after disastrous losses in consecutive national elections.

Since President Barack Obama took office, Republicans have struggled to counter his popularity and the Democrats’ command of Congress.

The GOP’s new national chairman, Michael Steele, got off to a rocky start. Moderate Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter defected to the Democrats. And Democrat Al Franken is favored to eventually be declared the winner of the disputed Minnesota Senate race over incumbent GOP Sen. Norm Coleman.

Now this.

“Last year I had an affair. I violated the vows of my marriage. It is the worst thing I have ever done in my life,” Ensign said Tuesday at a hastily arranged news conference in Sin City itself, Las Vegas.

He didn’t name the woman, but Cindy Hampton came forward later to say through an attorney that she regretted Ensign’s decision to “air this very personal matter.” Federal records showed that she was on his political payroll and received a promotion and a pay raise around the time he said the affair began in late 2007.

There also was a report of a previous affair, in 2002, an indication that the drip, drip of dalliance details may be only just beginning.

On Wednesday, as fellow senators remained mum, Ensign resigned his leadership post. The skilled communicator and proven fundraiser was the chairman of the Republican Policy Committee, the No. 4 Senate Republican.

Until his admission, Ensign was trying to raise his national profile. Popular in Nevada though virtually unknown elsewhere, he recently flirted with a 2012 presidential run, visiting the early voting state of Iowa and refusing to tamp down speculation of a bid.

Those dreams now seem dead.

Said Scott Reed, a Republican operative in Washington: “It’s a setback for the GOP in that Ensign is an attractive Republican politician who has national potential but has probably been sidelined.”