WASHINGTON — Sen. Tom Coburn played a more active role than previously known in the negotiations between ex-Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) and his former aide, Doug Hampton. The extent of the Oklahoma Republican’s involvement is made clear in a report released Thursday by the Senate Ethics Committee that accuses the former senator of serious criminal violations.
Senator Ensign resigned in disgrace, under a great deal of pressure. People were led to believe that it was to save the Hamptons from having to testify before the Senate Ethics Committee and to avoid embarrassment. Now it seems that there is another reason–
Senator Tom Colburn knew much more about his friend’s infidelity and pay off to the Hamptons. According to HuffPost:
Coburn, a friend of Ensign’s who confronted him about the adultery, became involved as an intermediary in negotiations between Ensign and Doug Hampton. The former aide sought money from Ensign in spring 2009. Coburn negotiated the payment to Doug Hampton down from $8 million to about $2.8 million, according to the report.
The Oklahoma Republican’s involvement in the cover-up of the affair could lead to uncomfortable questions for the senator and his party going forward. While Ensign left the Senate hastily last week, Coburn remains an active figure.
That leaves us with the question–should Colburn also step down? Was he or was he not involved in a cover up? Was he involved in what amounts to extortion?
In 2008, the senator [Coburn] was one of the men to confront Ensign about ending his affair with Cynthia Hampton, according to the report. Cobburn, along with C Street Christian fellowship’s evangelical leaders Tim Coe, David Coe and Marty Sherman, talked to Ensign and Doug Hampton at their group house on February 14, 2008. The Coes and Sherman are involved with The Family, a Christian group the C Street House is affiliated with.
“Senator Ensign was told that the affair had to stop,” the report says. “Mr. Hampton was very emotional during the meeting, and at one point got very close to a physical confrontation with Senator Ensign. Senator Coburn asked Mr. Hampton to leave, stating ‘we’ll take it from here. We’ll take care of this.’”
Eventually, Tim Coe went to the ex-senator’s father, Michael Ensign, to stop the affair. Tim Coe reportedly said that Coburn “was not big enough” for the job. The elder Ensign said he would handle it, according to the report.
People are human beings and therefore make mistakes. Most, however, have the decency to not be judgemental of others when everyone is in the same boat. These same clowns are still in there voting the family values ticket. That is what makes me so darn mad. I think John Edwards was a total pig however, he wasn’t out voting the morality ticket. Somehow, the fact that he wasn’t playing preacher boy mitigated his pigdom somewhat.
Should Coburn be called upon to resign for his role in this tawdry affair?
Details of the Senate Ethics Committee Report
Copy of the Senate Ethics Committee Report to download.
Class act:
•”Mr. Hampton found out about the affair on December 23, 2007, while he and his wife were on the way to the airport to pick up their son for the holidays. Senator Ensign was in a separate car on the way to the airport to greet the Hamptons’ son as well. … Mr. Hampton … viewed a text message from Senator Ensign to Ms. Hampton that made clear an affair was occurring. … When the cars were parked in the airport parking lot, Mr. Hampton jumped out of his car and chased Senator Ensign in the airport parking lot.”
•Ensign pressured contributors and constituents to hire Doug Hampton. When a “prominent” constituent declined, Ensign “instructed John Lopez, his Chief of Staff, to ‘jack him up to high heaven’ and inform the constituent that he was cut off from Senator Ensign.”
Ensign was an ass.
But, what has Coburn actually done wrong? Apparently Hampton is agreeable to being paid for his trouble and Coburn was acting as Ensign’s second.
He covered up criminal activiity? He was involved in the extortion of paying off Hampton?
Not sure if he broke the law or not but he had some complicity in the entire matter it appears.
The fact that he was involved seems to have reduced his credibility. All that bartering over money….not so senatorial. Mainly what grouses me is here we have yet another conservative values person involved in something cruddy.
first off, Ensign is a sleaze bag. Him paying off the Hampton’s to keep quiet is illegal. Paying them a severance is also not true – if it were severance, it would have come from the employer (US Senate) – it was hush money. For Coburn, an MD, to get in the middle may not be illegal, but he should have known better than to get in the middle of a situation like that – his constituents should question his priorities. As for the spiritual advisers – if they were really spiritual advisers, they would have had Ensign come clean, and fess up, not pay up to cover up.
I sort of agree, Pat. I don’t want him hung but for crying out loud. Maybe if he was just a little less judgemental. I wonder how he voted on funding planned parenthood, for example.
Ensign really was a scumbag, wasn’t he? Little rich boy who never learned what NO meant. He was probably a date rapist in his youth.
“I wonder how he voted on funding planned parenthood, for example.”
Would his actions be more acceptable if he was pro-PP funding? I’m not getting the connection.
Coburn should play the Bill Clinton “It depends on how you define extortion” card. Hey, it works for the Dems.
No, his actions wouldn’t be more acceptable. However, I would be less repulsed if he weren’t such a hypocrite.
Do you want to waste millions of dollars investigating him ??
So, Ensign paid off Hampton and you say that the pay off was illegal? I didn’t follow the case. Was Hampton arrested and charged with blackmail? Because if he wasn’t, how is this different paying damages out of court or to settle a case? Happens all the time.
The case is being turned over to justice. I suppose someone thinks it is illegal.
No, Hampton was not arrested. It is more white collar crime I believe. It has to do with the $95k that Ensign’s father gave Hampton I think. Some sort of campaign violation. I don’t know. Let the senate settle it. They seem to think there was great wrong doing.
Do you think Coburn’s conduct was unseemly?
Moon, with the people that are in Congress today, and the way they are acting, I think BEING IN CONGRESS is unseemly…..
And I’m not joking.
Cargo, I am not sure they are any worse now than they were ever.
Wilbur Mills of Tidal Basin fame, Joe McCarthy? Not exactly highlights of history.
Didn’t say that earlier ones were better…remember Mark Twain’s comment about Congress?
Congress is America’s only criminal class.
You all have to stop generalizing about the Congress. In my opinion, given the unfortunate trending away from integrity and marital fidelity in this country, the Congress looks to me like a mirror of much of the rest of society — only a mirror with a higher level of publicity. The contemporary news seems to expose bad apples all over the place these days — even in the halls of religion. Has this changed from the “old days”? Maybe. Maybe not. Perhaps it was just better hidden back then by the very media which now delights in exposing it. The extra-marital wanderings of both JFK and LBJ come to mind.
And in the realm of the unbelievable: Dominique Strauss-Kahn, head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), has been arrested by the NYPD at JFK Airport for an alleged attempted rape of a New York City hotel housekeeper. Talk about trending away…..
And it seems that Strauss-Kahn was (is?) a heavy favorite to become the Socialist candidate for the President of France, with a chance to beat Sarkozy! Go figure.
I guess he will bring a lot of baggage to any post he wants to fill.
What I find wrong in Congress, is not the infidelity of the family values person, it is the arrogance of them thinking they are above the law, and that they can do what they want, and to them, it all seems like it is right. Then they get their spiritual adviser to help them through the issues. Ensign and Hampton broke the law and should be held accountable.
We need leaders – something that is lacking – when leaders say that their first priority is to bring down the other party, they are not leading. When leaders say my way or the high way, they are not leading. Congress is not functioning – they accomplish very little, and spend most of their time trying to win political battles, instead of leading. Just look at the tax code – there is no leadership their, just loopholes for each sides political wants.
Pat, I agree. Actually their infidelity is none of my business. However, their arrogance and their votes are.
I despise them.