John Ensign Wins BuzzFlash's GOP Hypocrite of the Week Award for His Doubletalk on the Sanctity of Marriage

John Ensign

Welcome back to the BuzzFlash GOP Hypocrite of the Week.

It's almost a given that a guy who wastes time on the Senate floor blustering about the sanctity of marriage would have an affair with a married woman. So when news broke earlier this week that Sen. John Ensign would be coming clean about his infidelity, we weren't all that surprised.

We did figure he'd step down though, if only because he loves the word "resign." He called on Sen. Larry Craig to resign after his wide-stance problem was revealed. He also called on Bill Clinton to resign when the president's cigar issue became known. Ensign even said that if he was in the same -- ahem -- "position" as Craig, that he would resign. Ensign has also said that he thinks that "we need people who are in office who will hold themselves to a little higher standard."

Well, apparently he wasn't talking about his own higher standards. Ensign merely gave up his leadership position in the Senate, which makes some sense. After all, how can you have seniority when you're such a big baby? Anyway, it would be kind of bizarre if Ensign got all upset and called on himself to resign.

Ensign is also a member of the Christian group the Promise Keepers, begging the question of what promises he's kept. As this blogger notes, the Promise Keepers' motto is "Men of Integrity:"

Central to Promise Keepers® membership is a pledge to keep the Seven Promises, among them:

PROMISE 3: A Promise Keeper is committed to practicing spiritual, moral, ethical, and sexual purity.

PROMISE 4: A Promise Keeper is committed to building strong marriages and families through love, protection and biblical values.

Well ... five out of seven ain't bad.

Besides, Mr. Ensign got a 100% rating from the Christian Coalition on family issues and 100% ratings from the Family Research Council ("Defending Family, Faith, and Freedom") and Donald Wildmon's American Family Association.

Well, even family-values-crusading Promise Keepers make mistakes. However, it seems that this wasn't just a one-time indiscretion. The Associated Press reports that Ensign had a separate affair in 2002. Furthermore, the senator has paid a great deal of money to the woman he had the affair with, her husband and her son, all former employees of Ensign's.

That calls into question what exactly Ensign was talking about when he advocated "the preservation of the most important structure in our society." Maybe he meant extortion? Or the inalienable right to suspicious accounting?

Some speculate that the admission of this affair will put an end to Ensign's presidential aspirations. However, BuzzFlash begs to differ; we think Ensign's level of hypocrisy makes him the perfect GOP nominee for president! Either way, it makes him a perfect candidate for BuzzFlash's GOP Hypocrite of the Week.

Remember our motto: So many Republican hypocrites, so little time.

Catch up with you soon.

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This is John Ensign's first GOP Hypocrite award. Welcome to the club. You can see a list of all previous nominees here.

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