Breaking - Ensign won't run

[malaise]

Bwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! Wish Tangerine LaBamba was here to celebrate.
We called this one.

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-03-07/republican-senator-ensign-won-t-seek-re-election-in-2012.html
<snip>
U.S. Senator John Ensign, a Nevada Republican who was investigated by the Justice Department following his extramarital affair with a former campaign aide, announced today that he won’t seek re-election next year.

Ensign in a statement apologized to his family, staff and supporters for the “pain” caused by his affair, and he said his opting not to run again was “the most difficult decision of my life.”

“I do not want to put my family, those that I care about, or this state through what would be a very ugly campaign that would ultimately cause a great deal more pain than has already been felt as a result of my actions,” Ensign said.

First elected to the Senate in 2000, Ensign was a member of the chamber’s Republican leadership when he disclosed in June 2009 that he had had an affair with the campaign aide. The Justice Department in December said Ensign was no longer a target into a probe of whether a severance payment he made to the aide was an illegal campaign contribution. The Senate’s ethics panel is still looking into allegations stemming from matter.
------------------
Why isn't he is prison?

[gratuitous]

1. Mr. Ensign isn't in prison, because prosecutors aren't investigating

It would seem there's a pretty good case for some kind of corruption to be made, what with the boinking and the hush money and the bribe job and stuff, but apparently the Justice Department can't quite seem to see its way clear to looking too closely into this. Mr. Ensign will become an ex-Senator with full rights and privileges, and have to live off Mummy and Daddy's wealth. I suppose that's punishment enough.

[malaise]

6. Can't help but wonder what's coming down from

the ethics committee.

[gratuitous]

8. I'll go out on a limb

And say, "Not much." Both the House and Senate Ethics Committees are famously "bipartisan" with membership evenly divided between the two parties. Depending on the member being investigated, one side or the other gets to posture about how horrible the actions of the member in question are, then after a snappy 3-3 vote along party lines, nothing happens.

But somebody gets to make a speech, so we got that going for us.

Members of the Senate Ethics Committee:

Democrats
Barbara Boxer, California, Chairman
Mark L. Pryor, Arkansas
Sherrod Brown, Ohio

Republicans
Johnny Isakson, Georgia, Vice Chairman
Pat Roberts, Kansas
James E. Risch, Idaho

[malaise]

2. More - resignation

http://www.nationaljournal.com/congress/ensign-announces-he-s-retiring-20110307
<snip>
Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., will not seek a third term, he announced at a press conference in Las Vegas Monday, bringing to an end a once-promising career beset by scandal and investigations.

"I have come to the most difficult decision I have ever made in my life," Ensign said. "I don't look at this as the end of a journey, but as another chapter in that journey."

[eleny]

3. Tangerine LaBamba

[emulatorloo]

4. When one door closes, another opens for Sharon Angle!!!!!

[malaise]

5. Good who do we have running against

that bat shit crazy moron :evilgrin:

[eleny]

7. You just know she's going to run

Hopefully there's still enough footage of her running away to make it impossible for her to win.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

9. I don't know how to feel

I wanted to see if Nevada was as pissed about Ensign's piccadellos enough to want to throw him out like they were ready to throw Harry out for no good reason other than a fat drug addict complains about him a lot.

[RandySF]

10. Sabato says the race is still 50-50.

He said that Heller is stronger than Ensign, but we have a good bench.

[Angry Dragon]

11. republican political sex scum