Look, I don’t know what is legal or precisely what is allowed or not allowed under the Senate ethics rules, but getting your rich daddy to pay off your mistress to the tune of $96,000 just doesn’t seem worthy of a U.S. Senator. When you add to it that the mistress and her husband were both your employees and that you had them both terminated…I’m just not sure this whole transaction is kosher, let alone survivable politically.
Now, I know that the money could be as easily interpreted as fair compensation as hush money, but it was definitely an investment in containing knowledge of Ensign’s indiscretion. And, while it’s true that he didn’t use any campaign funds, the use of his Daddy as a cut-out was clearly intended to hide obvious traces and probably to avoid Senate disclosure rules.
I am going to assume that Daddy Ensign is rich enough that he didn’t require his son to pay him back in some kind of laundering arrangement, but who knows for sure?
In any case, it would probably be best if Ensign followed Eliot Spitzer’s example and resigned his post. The fact that he’s a hypocrite of the highest order only adds urgency to his decision.
And I think Tom Coburn is out of his mind pretending to have advised his roommate in his capacity as a physician and ordained deacon, and therefore his urging to to Ensign to pay for the couple’s relocation to Colorado is privileged. That is horse-hockey.
