{"id":4247,"date":"2011-03-08T05:59:52","date_gmt":"2011-03-08T13:59:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=4247"},"modified":"2011-03-08T05:59:52","modified_gmt":"2011-03-08T13:59:52","slug":"the-republican-ensign-falls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2011\/03\/08\/the-republican-ensign-falls\/","title":{"rendered":"The Republican Ensign Falls"},"content":{"rendered":"

An ensign, according to Webster<\/a>, is<\/font> a flag that is flown (as by a ship) as the symbol of nationality and that may also be flown with a distinctive badge added to its design.  The Republican Party has its own ensign that symbolizes their integrity and morality: John Ensign.  But he\u2019s just the tip of the iceberg.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\"8Ensign\"Senator John Ensign, the two-term Nevada Republican caught up in a sex and ethics inquiry, announced Monday that he would not seek re-election in 2012<\/strong> to avoid what he predicted would be an \u201cexceptionally ugly\u201d campaign.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs I have learned through the mistake that I made, there are consequences to sin,\u201d Mr. Ensign, 52, said at a news conference in Las Vegas as his wife, Darlene, stood at his side. <\/p>\n

Once considered a future presidential contender, Mr. Ensign has seen his political fortunes plummet since he admitted in 2009 to an affair with a former campaign staffer who was also the wife of a top aide<\/strong>. A Senate Ethics Committee investigation, still under way, began after disclosures that Mr. Ensign\u2019s parents paid $96,000 to the aide, Douglas Hampton, who also said the senator had helped him line up lobbying clients after Mr. Hampton left his Senate job<\/strong>. <\/p>\n

Mr. Ensign, who had previously insisted that he intended to run again, is the eighth senator and third Republican to announce that he will not be on the ballot in 2012, a reflection of the turbulent political atmosphere and frustration some lawmakers feel about the inability to find consensus in a highly partisan Congress. More retirements are likely, freeing some senators from typical political considerations as they face tough decisions about federal spending and the deficit. <\/p>\n

Mr. Ensign\u2019s decision opens the door to another high-profile Senate race in Nevada, where Senator Harry Reid, a Democrat who is the majority leader, was able to hold off a strong challenge last November. <\/p>\n

Republicans were relieved by Mr. Ensign\u2019s decision, viewing him as badly damaged politically by the disclosures about the affair… [emphasis added<\/em>]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Inserted from <NY Times<\/a>><\/p>\n

The article\u2019s suggestion that Ensign\u2019s resignation had anything to do with failure fo find consensus in the Senate is pure hogwash.  Ensign was too damaged to win, period.  Rachel Maddow expands on the overall hypocrisy of the Republican family values<\/em> lie.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/embed><\/object><\/font><\/p>\n

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news<\/a>, world news<\/a>, and news about the economy<\/a><\/p>\n

Republicans put family first in the same way they put the American people first.  Frankly, I feel outrage that this man gets to retire with the pension, perques and privileges of a US Senator.<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An ensign, according to Webster, is a flag that is flown (as by a ship) as the symbol of nationality and that may also be flown with a distinctive badge added to its design.  The Republican Party has its own ensign that symbolizes their integrity and morality: John Ensign.  But he\u2019s just the tip of […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-5-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4247"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4247\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}