Revelations on long history of arrogance expose a persona loyal only to John Ensign
Last summer, Sen. John Ensign was with his wife, Darlene, at Palace Station for a meeting of Nevada Republican women.
It was a somewhat awkward venue, coming soon after he had confessed to an affair with his best friend’s wife, Cynthia Hampton, who had been Ensign’s campaign treasurer and whose husband, Doug Hampton, had been his Senate co-chief of staff.
Ensign’s chrome-colored hair just so and his shirt stiffly starched, as always, he plowed ahead.
“I want to first acknowledge my lovely bride. My wife, Darlene, is here. Anybody who does this job knows that, without a very supportive spouse, we wouldn’t be able to accomplish the things we were able to accomplish, especially when I go to Washington,” he said, awkwardness filling the air as if from a leaky propane tank.
“I want to share a few thoughts with you tonight. It’s always great, though, to be among such, um, well, beautiful women.”
That odd digression was followed by laughter.
“Gorgeous room here tonight, I know that. But also pretty, energetic women. We’re going to need that energy together,” he said.
For the second-term Republican, who won re-election with 55 percent of the vote in 2006, these tone-deaf — borderline obtuse — comments were just one example of increasingly arrogant behavior that goes back years, Republicans say.
In interviews with the Las Vegas Sun, more than a dozen friends, associates and Republican allies, some of whom have known Ensign for years, describe him as a politician who has grown narcissistic and reckless — a detached, self-righteous figure with almost no regard for those who helped send him to Washington or keep him there.
Ensign’s actions in the wake of the affair, and the resulting investigations by the Justice Department and the Senate Ethics Committee have bled into the lives of his once-closest aides, associates and friends, as well as largely innocent bystanders and his family.
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2010/apr/05/deconstructing-senators-facade/
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