Beleaguered Sen. John Ensign (R-No Comment) got chatty this week at a Chamber of Commerce event in Fernley, Nev., that marked his first public appearance in his home state since announcing his extramarital affair. A week after being called out by a fellow Republican for his prolonged silence, Ensign told the Associated Press on Wednesday that, unlike President Clinton and former Idaho Sen. Larry Craig, whom he strongly chastised for their indiscretions, he shouldn’t consider resigning.
"I haven't done anything legally wrong," he said, though a Washington watchdog group thinks investigators could possibly come to a different conclusion.
"In the case of President Clinton," said Ensign, whom commentator Rachel Maddow has tagged Johnny Be Bad, "first of all he was president and he stood right before the American people and he lied to the American people. You remember the famous day that he lied to the American people, plus the fact that I thought he suborned perjury. That's why I voted for articles of impeachment."
Now, while no one is accusing Ensign of perjury, one could argue that the senator never told voters that he advocated such things as having an affair with a married staffer and then getting his wealthy parents to pay her and her family $96,000 after she left his employ. Quite the opposite.
Ensign, a social conservative who has also railed against gay marriage, belongs to the Christian ministry Promise Keepers, whose members adhere to seven vows. Here are two of them:
No. 3: A Promise Keeper is committed to practicing spiritual, moral, ethical, and sexual purity.
No. 4: A Promise Keeper is committed to building strong marriages and families through love, protection and biblical values.