http://news.rgj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060131/NEWS07/601310346/1010/NEWS
Ensign suffers minor injuries in SUV crash
Deck Hed
ANJEANETTE DAMON
RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL
Posted: 1/31/2006
U.S. Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., was hospitalized briefly Monday morning following a head-on collision in Las Vegas.
Ensign suffered cuts and bruises, but no serious injuries, in the 8 a.m. crash on Paradise Road, according to press secretary Jack Finn. Ensign's aide, who was driving him to the airport, also suffered minor injuries. Finn refused to name the aide for privacy reasons.
Ensign, 47, was in a Mercury Mountaineer when an oncoming Ford Explorer drifted into his lane and hit the senator's sport utility vehicle "almost head-on," police spokesman Bill Cassell said.
The driver of the Explorer, who was not identified, told police he fell asleep while driving, Cassell said. It was not clear whether that driver was hurt.
A third car rear-ended the Mountaineer after the head-on crash. That driver was not injured, police said.
"He's a little sore," Finn said of Ensign. "He got stitches in his elbow and they took some shards of glass out of his hand. But he's feeling pretty good, considering, and obviously very lucky."
Ensign spent about three hours in the hospital, missing his morning flight to Washington, D.C. Ensign missed the Senate vote to end a short-lived Democratic effort to filibuster Judge Samuel Alito's nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Late Monday, he was trying to find a flight that would have him back in Washington in time for the vote to confirm Alito to the court.
"He missed the cloture vote, which he's disappointed about," Finn said. "He's hoping to get back for confirmation."
(snip)
How fortunate he was in a head on collision!!!
/Reid off
Would have made a great visual if he was able to walk up to the Senate podium voting for cloture with blood dripping from his elbow, picking glass out of his hand.
When the Hawaii senator was ill and couldn't make the vote on a judge, Senator Stevens voted yes, but then changed to "abstain", to balance out the vote. This is what a collegial body does.
On a cloture vote, the "nays" are meaningless, all that matters is how many "aye" votes there are. For a brief moment, when Senator Reid stood up to announce Ensign was injured and couldn't make the vote, I thought Reid was going to announce that, in honor of the senate collegiality and common decency, he would vote "yes" on clotuer for his fellow Nevadan since Ensign's "abstain" vote would be like a "no" vote.
But then, he didn't, because democrats, and Reid in particular, have no honor, no propriety, and no sense of decency or collegiality.