Free Republic

Las Vegas (CNN) -- One minute, he's checking a cat's mouth for gingivitis. The next, he's carefully bandaging a dog's bloody, broken nail. This could be any hard-working veterinarian tending to ailing animals. But the embroidered name on his crisp white medical coat bears a familiar name: Dr. John Ensign. He's better known as former Nevada Sen. John Ensign, who abruptly announced his resignation 10 months ago amid a high-profile sex scandal. "I built this," Ensign told CNN in an exclusive interview inside West Flamingo Animal Hospital, where he now works. "It was the first 24-hour animal hospital in Las...

Before John Ensign resigned as Nevada's junior senator on May 3, the Republican faced a Senate Ethics Committee investigation into a possibly illegal cover-up that followed an affair between Ensign and Cindy Hampton, a campaign aide who was married to the senator's administrative assistant. Last week, the committee released a report on the probe - and it is ugly. The committee wasn't particularly interested in the nine-month affair. Its focus was on - you guessed it - the cover-up. Ensign's parents made a $96,000 "gift" to the Hamptons after the couple stopped working for Ensign. Ensign steered husband Doug Hampton...

CARSON CITY, Nevada (AP) Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval has named Republican Rep. Dean Heller to replace John Ensign in the U.S. Senate. The appointment announced Wednesday sets in motion a political scramble on how Heller's seat in the House will be filled. State law says a special election must be held within 180 days of a vacancy.

Nevada Sen. John Ensign (R) plans to announce Friday he will resign his Senate seat, aides said Thursday. Ensign has been under investigation by the Senate Ethics Committee over whether he violated Senate rules during his affair with Cindy Hampton, a former campaign aide. Hampton’s husband, Doug Hampton, was Ensign’s deputy chief of staff during most of the extramarital relationship. Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0411/53557.html#ixzz1KCVouaTc

Ten Republican senators are warning Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid that they will block any bills that do not address fiscal issues until the current impasse on spending is resolved. "While there are many issues that warrant the Senate's consideration, we feel that the Senate must not debate and consider bills at this time that do not affirmatively cut spending," reads a letter signed by the group of 10. "We, therefore, are notifying you of our intention to object to the consideration of any legislation that fails to directly address this crisis in a meaningful way." The letter was...

LAS VEGAS (AP) -- Republican Sen. John Ensign of Nevada, damaged politically and facing a Senate ethics investigation over an extramarital affair, said Monday he won't seek re-election next year. Ensign, who is under investigation by the Senate Ethics Committee, said he decided last week against seeking a third term because he was worried about the effect of a campaign on his family.

Kudos to Sen. John Ensign, R-Nevada, for finally figuring out that he should not run for re-election. I don't care if he is not facing criminal charges. Ensign's woes began with an affair with staffer Cindy Hampton. Hampton's husband worked for Ensign and was a close friend. After Mr. H. found out about the affair, Ensign's parents paid the Hamptons $96,000 and helped the husband find work. The whole story stank . . .

Townhall mtg. today, 1:30-2:30 pm @ Joe Crowley Student Union Bldg., UNR, 1664 N. Virginia St., Reno. I'm on his email list and this is the first I've heard of it.

Hartford, Conn. (AP) -- Officials say a junior officer at a Connecticut submarine base has received an honorable discharge after suing the Navy, saying his Quaker beliefs prevent him from participating in war. . . . As part of his honorable discharge, he will reimburse the Navy for his education.

As attention turns to the 112th Congress -- and the 2012 cycle -- the political ramifications of the sprint to close the 111th Congress are becoming clear. Several members of the 111th Congress may find themselves in competitive Senate races in 2012 and an analysis of their voting decisions during the lame duck session offers a few clues about what is in store for some of 2012's marquee contests. The debate over Pres. Obama's compromise on the extension of the Bush tax cuts, a central focus of the session, shed some light on the 2012 Nevada Senate race. Sen. John...

In a surprising move, after voting against cloture earlier in the day, Sen. Richard Burr (R., N.C.) and Sen. John Ensign (R., Nev.) both voted to repeal the U.S. military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy on homosexuality. The measure passed by a 65–31 margin this afternoon. Other Republicans voting in favor of repeal: Sen. Mark Kirk (Ill.), Sen. Scott Brown (Mass.), Sen. George Voinovich (Ohio), Sen. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), and the Maine ladies, Sen. Olympia Snowe and Sen. Susan Collins. Burr said it was not a difficult vote to cast, despite his state’s being home to Camp Lejeune, the largest...

Sen. John Ensign Proves that Bush Tax Cuts Increased Federal Revenue and in fact the deficit is caused entirely due to the spending. I love his chart and it is indicative of what it takes to push back against Democratic Talking Points and I think represents the kind of communication that Conservatives have to emulate.

Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, today released its 2009 list of Washington's "Ten Most Wanted Corrupt Politicians." The list, in alphabetical order, includes: 1. Senator Christopher Dodd (D-CT): This marks two years in a row for Senator Dodd, who made the 2008 "Ten Most Corrupt" list for his corrupt relationship with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and for accepting preferential treatment and loan terms from Countrywide Financial, a scandal which still dogs him. In 2009, the scandals kept coming for the Connecticut Democrat. In 2009, Judicial Watch filed a Senate ethics complaint against...

John Ensign's not very popular, but if the current political climate persists in 2012 he might be able to get reelected anyway. Ensign's approval rating is just 38% with 44% of voters in the state disapproving of him. Yet at the same time he leads three potential Democratic opponents for reelection by margins of 2-11 points. It's 43-41 against Oscar Goodman, 49-40 against Shelley Berkley, and 47-36 against Ross Miller. Those numbers say a lot about the priorities of voters in Nevada right now- they might not like Ensign on a personal level but having soured on Barack Obama and...

Nevada Sen. John Ensign said Monday it is wrong for his fellow Republicans to call for the resignation of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid over racially insensitive comments he made about President Obama. Reid has apologized to Obama since a new book quoted him describing Obama during the 2008 presidential campaign as a light-skinned African-American "with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one." Ensign said Monday that Reid's apology was sincere and that the Nevada Democrat regretted how his comments were taken. "I think we need to get away from this politics of gotcha," Ensign told KKOH radio...

The Senate’s passage of a massive health-care reform bill yesterday morning was greeted by partisan applause by Democrats, but President Obama noted that “we now have to take up the last and most important step and reach an agreement on a final reform bill that I can sign into law.” We don’t expect reconciling the House and Senate versions will prove all that difficult, but another aspect of Obamacare that deserves closer examination is whether it passes constitutional muster. Republican senators Jim DeMint of South Carolina and John Ensign of Nevada this week offered an amendment stating Congress lacks power...

It's about time that someone has the backbone to address the eight hundred pound elephant in the room. ObamaCare is so clearly unconstitutional that it's disappointing it's taken so long for anyone in government to make a serious issue out of it. It's better late than never, but the argument would have carried more weight and credibility if they'd constantly been attacking ObamaCare on Constitutional grounds...

Sen. John Ensign has admitted to having an affair with a staffer, admitted that he helped find a job for the staffer’s husband and admitted that his parents paid the staffer’s family nearly $100,000. But the worst may still be to come. The Justice Department is expected to decide within weeks whether to pursue a criminal probe into the relationship between Ensign (R-Nev.) and the staffer’s husband, and two prominent Washington defense attorneys say prosecutors are likely to find Ensign’s case irresistible. “I don’t see how they cannot look at this case,” Stan Brand, a Washington attorney who specializes in...

Politically speaking, Sen. John Ensign of Nevada is about as battered as it gets. The Republican senator in June acknowledged an extramarital affair with a campaign aide, who was married to his best friend, who has castigated Ensign in television interviews as a shameless Lothario. In recent days, after the New York Times reported on Ensign's efforts to silence his mistress' husband, Doug Hampton, the Senate ethics committee launched an investigation and talk surfaced of a possible FBI inquiry. Ensign has said he won't resign, and Nevada's GOP is widely considered too emasculated to push him out. Regardless of what...

WASHINGTON — Early last year, Senator John Ensign contacted a small circle of political and corporate supporters back home in Nevada — a casino designer, an airline executive, the head of a utility and several political consultants — seeking work for a close friend and top Washington aide, Douglas Hampton. <snip>While the affair made national news in June, the role that Mr. Ensign played in assisting Mr. Hampton and helping his clients has not been previously disclosed. Several experts say those activities may have violated an ethics law that bars senior aides from lobbying the Senate for a year after...