.jpg "John Ensign, Promise Keeper")
U.S. Senator John Ensign, the Republican guardian of America’s morals from Nevada (motto: “The Gambling & Whorehouse State”) has admitted to an extramarital affair with his campaign treasurer, Cynthia “Cindy” Hampton, a family friend and the wife of his administrative assistant, Douglas Hampton.
Senator Ensign is an active member of Promise Keepers®, a Christian men’s fellowship (motto:” 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.
“Marriage recognizes the ideal of a father and mother living together to raise their children. Marriage is the cornerstone on which our society was founded … It is not right to mold marriage to fit the desires of a few, against the wishes of so many, and to ignore the important role of marriage.”
— Senator John Ensign (R-NV), defending the Sanctity of Marriage Act on the Senate floor, 2004
Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.
Tags: Ensign, John Ensign, sex
NotionsCapital 
June 17, 2009 at 12:43 pm
[…] ALERT—Sen. John Ensign—Republican of Nevada, Promise Keeper, rising political star, moral crusader, gun-rights advocate, and foe of District […]
June 17, 2009 at 1:04 pm
UPDATE: Mr. Ensign resigned as Chairman of the Republican Policy Committee, 4th highest position in the Senate’s Republican hierarchy.
We do not know the status of his membership in the Promise Keepers®, Meadows Fellowship Foursquare Church in Las Vegas, the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel, or Nevada Veterinary Medical Association (the sly dog!).
June 17, 2009 at 1:19 pm
Any comments from Christian Coalition, Family Research Council, or American Family Association, all of which have, in the past, given the gentleman from Nevada a 100% rating?
[Nope. Not yet – ml]
June 17, 2009 at 1:47 pm
Well, here is the deal: He’ll come out to his congregation(s), weeping, it will be televised. He’ll say he’s sorry and made a mistake. They ALL do the same thing after getting busted in the chicken coop.
June 17, 2009 at 2:17 pm
Another damn Republican hypocrite bites the dust. Good riddance. However, I give him points for doing his cheating with a woman rather than another man or a farm animal as is more typical of Republicans.
June 17, 2009 at 3:01 pm
don wrote: I give him points for doing his cheating with a woman rather than another man or a farm animal as is more typical of Republicans.
The woman in question was a family friend, an Ensign employee, and the wife of an Ensign employee. That seems hypocrisy squared or cubed. An adulterous affair with an unrelated adult man or an animal might be seen as an ethical step up.
As for animals, John Ensign, DVM is very fond of horses, but not … that way, and not for dinner.
June 17, 2009 at 4:57 pm
UPDATE: Ensign paid the 19-year-old son of his extra-marital lover as a “Research Policy Consultant” through the National Republican Senatorial Committee during their affair last year.
Family Values, indeed!
June 18, 2009 at 1:05 pm
Oh, I can’t tell you how SHOCKED I am. Or am I? Promise Keepers stands for the oppression of women, treating them like they are imbeciles, and attempting to dominate every thought, hope and dream they might ever have. Of course, all in the name of Jesus!
Anyway, it’s not his fault, it’s all those damn women who seduce and tempt him with their Satan-possessed ways. I know; that crap is very big around my area.
June 18, 2009 at 7:41 pm
So the ‘moral’ of the story: take a stand for straights-only marriage, obsess about the fetus, preach Christian-supremacy, condemn others in scandals, use strong family-values rhetoric, fight against the rights of all adults….then nail your friend’s wife! Rev. Bookburn – Radio Volta
June 18, 2009 at 9:51 pm
No one is perfect. Did he do wrong? Yes. David was an adulter. David killed a man to get his wife. God sees our heart. Do I trust a politican? No way baby. Did he truly repent? I sure hope so. You see none of us are perfect. Hate the sin. Love the sinner. If you want to play tit for tat I can play that game all night long… That’s in reference to [Rev. Bookburn].
June 19, 2009 at 6:44 am
bobbygee wrote: Did [the Senator] truly repent?
He is said to have done so in 2002, the last time he was caught having an extra-marital affair.
Did he do wrong? Yes. David was an adulter [sic].
If you think John Ensign is King David, see a physician immediately.
And see a theologian while you’re at it. You’re also confusing the Book of Samuel and the New Testiment.
June 19, 2009 at 12:41 pm
UPDATE: See Senator Ensign’s video for his PAC.
June 19, 2009 at 3:43 pm
Why can’t anyone find a picture of this woman? My lord, she has been active in politics before, surely she attended some event somewhere during which her pitcure was taken?
June 19, 2009 at 4:11 pm
HM wrote: Why can’t anyone find a picture of this woman?
A photo has appeared several times but it appears to be of another “Cynthia Hampton.”
Another interesting mystery is why Darlene Ensign (née Sciarretta) seems to lack a published biography.
June 19, 2009 at 5:22 pm
UPDATE:
Invite John Ensign into your LINKEDIN network.
Follow him on TWITTER.
Find him on FACEBOOK.
Friend him on MySpace!
June 20, 2009 at 9:43 am
I loved your comments to my Ensign posts. When I saw it on my email I busted out laughing hard!!! When I found out thru an article he was in the men’s ministry “Promise Keepers” I was a bit baffled and laughed some more. Ensign apparently must not have read up much on this scripture from
Matthew 7:1 (King James Version) Matthew 7
1Judge not, that ye be not judged.
How funny for him to find fault with others wrong doing only for his dirt done in the dark to come to light. Talk about your conservative family values!!! I can’t stand conservatives when they talk soo holier than thou and self righteous on issues and hypocrite is totally written all over their faces!!!
June 20, 2009 at 9:51 am
The overall problem I see with politicians PERIOD (regardless of liberal, center or conservative) is they have drunk with power and ego syndrome and think they can get away with anything and EVERYTHING and they have too damn long term (particularly in the case of some of these aging senators). They also don’t give a damn about the everyday little person that put them in the position in the first place!! I am for senators having terms and not staying in there FOREVER. Fresh new blood and ones who will adhere to proper ethics is what is needed!! People will be human and fall short in morality and I get that. Yet we need term LIMITS on these senators. If Congresspeople got two year terms perhaps senators need them too!!!
June 20, 2009 at 10:29 am
ediva75 wrote: The overall problem I see with politicians … is they have drunk with power and ego
I would suggest that our current political process selects for these personality traits. No one but an egomaniac with an unhealthy need for approval and affection would put himself or herself through our grueling, demeaning, and unending political campaigns.
and think they can get away with anything and EVERYTHING
Only if we let them.
If Congresspeople get two year terms perhaps senators need them too!!!
With all due respect, the House of Representatives is a bigger snakepit than the Senate; there are just more snakes, so it can be harder to notice. The two-year term means a congressman’s campaign never ends, so he or she is always raising funds for the next election, and is easier for special interests to buy — and cheaper than a senator.
Congressional incumbents have an overwhelming advantage in elections, and seniority increases their ability to bring earmarked Federal cash to the home district, further entrenching those in office.
While term limits seem attractive, in reality congressional rules are so Byzantine that most members don’t learn how to get things done until their second or third terms, if at all. Even if congressional procedure was straight-forward and transparent, it is much more difficult to evaluate the effectiveness of legislators, the makers of laws, than the executives we elect to use those laws in the real world– mayors, governors, and presidents.
June 20, 2009 at 1:43 pm
.
..
…The Senator is calling his followers for an old-fashioned prayer meeting Sunday morning at Hooters, Tropicana Avenue… Dress is casual.
June 20, 2009 at 3:26 pm
hooloogoo: I doubt the Senator hangs at Hooters, but he does attend a church that seeks to reform prostitutes while representing Nevada, where prostitution is legal.
Perhaps that explains some of his … personal issues.
Mr. Ensign attends a Fouresquare Gospel church, and church founder Aimee Semple McPherson speaks of the moral hypocrisy of politicians in this video.
June 20, 2009 at 4:48 pm
I regularly attented a Foursquare Church several years ago and was comfortable there. I know who Aimee McPherson is, but still am not certain she founded this church. In any case, the one issue with extreme fundamental congregations is that they demand so much supression across the board–in all walks of an individual’s life. Then, in services, they have a great deal of emotion, not shouting or snake handling, but letting out everything they feel toward “Jesus”. This imbalance can lead to perversion.
Having said that, I don’t see Ensign as being a true Foursquarer. He’s too urbane, too worldly. And I think that this entire episode was not Ensign having an affair with this woman, but Ensign having an affair with the couple…both Hamptons…a menage a trois. .
June 20, 2009 at 5:16 pm
Anne R wrote: I know who Aimee McPherson is, but still am not certain she founded this church
The church website says she did.
they demand so much supression … in all walks of an individual’s life. Then, in services, they have a great deal of emotion … letting out everything they feel toward “Jesus”. This imbalance can lead to perversion.
I am no psychiatrist, but some might argue that the emotionalism of the worship experience might function as a relief valve for any tensions such as you postulate. Of course Pentacostal worshippers view much of this behavior as a manifestation of the Divine Spirit.
I don’t see Ensign as being a true Foursquarer.
He is. The Senator and The Missus attend Meadows Fellowship Foursquare Gospel Church in Las Vegas.
He’s too urbane, too worldly.
Looks and sounds more like a sunlamp-owning TV preacher to me.
But the real issue is not Mr. Ensign’s personal beliefs, or even his well-documented history of moral hypocrisy. It is his insistence in imposing his beliefs on others with the force of law.
I think that this entire episode was not Ensign having an affair with this woman, but Ensign having an affair with the couple…both Hamptons … a ménage à trois.
Anne R, tabloid journalists the world over are praying you are right, even the atheists among them.
June 20, 2009 at 5:24 pm
For adultery: Who cares? Was he a good senator? That should be the question.
This case, though, has a truck-load of culpability-extending circumstances as well noted in other comments (I agree with the comment that these square and/or cube the offense). For this, Senator Ensign deserves all of the tar and feathering our hypocritical media and society can muster. One can only hope that there’s a special circle in hell for deceivers like Ensign. Problem is, for people of this political stripe, all that matters is the crusade and the crusade continues. Warriors crashing and burning hardly even serve as speed bumps. Ensign was warrior and he served them well and new he is used up. Good riddance for now but it’s only a matter of time before the next one steps up.
Maybe tarring and feathering isn’t enough: We need to hit them where it really hurts. Any ideas?
June 20, 2009 at 5:51 pm
Deiter wrote: For adultery: Who cares?
There is an allegation of an earlier incident, in 2002. Republicans and so-called “Cultural Conservatives” care.
Was he a good senator?
The verb should be “is” — Mr. Ensign is still in the U.S. Senate.
That should be the question.
The answer depends on whom you ask. If you ask me, then no. Mr. Ensign has imposed his professed personal morality on others through such legislation as the so-called Defense of Marriage Act, and he personally deprived the people of the District of Columbia a vote in Congress by a cynical action, for political gain.
now he is used up. Good riddance for now but it’s only a matter of time before the next one steps up
Mr. Ensign is still in the U.S. Senate.
Maybe tarring and feathering isn’t enough: We need to hit them where it really hurts. Any ideas?
Yes. Keep Mr. Ensign in the U.S. Senate, to embarrass other politicians of his pontificating ilk. He will be the dead roach on the kitchen floor of the Republican party.
June 21, 2009 at 9:12 am
The media and Dems have been sitting on the Rep. Loretta Sanchez adultery story for a year now. This is a bi-partisan game. It’s ridiculous to say this is more common among Reps. Edwards, Newsome, Villariagosa, Sanchez, Clinton….
June 21, 2009 at 11:24 am
Justhowitis wrote: The media and Dems have been sitting on the Rep. Loretta Sanchez adultery story
Because it is a non-story. Loretta Sanchez was in the process of obtaining a divorce.
Her boyfriend was in the service at the time and thus theoretically liable under the military code? USN Captain John McCain often stepped out on wife Carol while executive officer of Replacement Air Group 174 in Jacksonville. Son and grandson of admirals, he was never prosecuted for his moral transgressions.
Mr. McCain even obtaining a marriage license for young beer heiress Cindy Lou Hensley before he was divorced from Carol.
Unlike hypocritical sexual bad boys Newt Gingrich, Tom DeLay, Dan Crane, David Vitter, Mark Foley, Larry Craig, and John Ensign, Rep. Sanchez has not used the law to impose her personal religious beliefs on other Americans or made pompous pronouncements on morality and “Family Values.”
June 23, 2009 at 6:01 am
Licht, you are wrong on every point and obviously don’t know the facts about Sanchez. Both Sanchez and her assigned official escort were married and living with their spouses when they decided to shack up. Sanchez has made much of her supposed advocacy for military spouses in her perch as senior woman on the Armed Services committee. She routinely beats up Pentagon leaders for their failure to protect military spouses from abuse and neglect, while she destroyed an Army family in her selfish pursuit of her married lover. That’s pretty damned hypocritical. Also, she does profess family values rhetoric in her recent book. Ensign is being flogged for his adultery, plain and simple. Liberals say it reflects character flaws. What’s good for the gander is good for the goose.
June 23, 2009 at 9:20 am
Justhowitis Says: you … obviously don’t know the facts about Sanchez.
“Facts?” You presented rumors about a 2003 Christmas card and a divorce granted in 2004. Citing anonymous sources close to the Sanchez boyfriend’s ex-wife doesn’t even make for good allegations, let alone facts.
Your “facts” don’t even tell us who got custody of the cat in the Sanchez divorce.
Holier-than-thou Senator Ensign admitted screwing his neighbor and employee for years, the wife of his friend and employee, and made questionable payments from party and government funds to his mistress and her family. Mr. Ensign finally got caught and had to admit the truth — those are facts. An unhappy Sanchez marriage doesn’t change them.
June 23, 2009 at 9:57 pm
[…] John Ensign, Promise Keeper « NotionsCapital […]
June 24, 2009 at 5:55 pm
[…] Sanford of South Carolina admitted to a year-long adulterous affair today. Following the example of adulterous Republican Senator John Ensign, he resigned his party leadership position. Mr. Sanford was chairman of the Republican Governors […]
June 29, 2009 at 1:20 pm
Update:
See this review of Susan Wise Bauer’s book The Art of the Public Grovel: Sexual Sin and Public Confession in America (Princeton University Press).
July 4, 2009 at 9:09 am
Just another in a long LONG line of Christian hypocrites.
Personally, I laugh every single time one of these charlatans falls…
July 22, 2009 at 11:17 pm
[…] John Ensign: “Love Thy Neighbor, Especially If She Works For You.” […]
August 21, 2009 at 9:21 am
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April 22, 2011 at 8:09 am
[…] Ensign belongs to the Christian men’s Promise Keepers® ministry (motto: “Men of Integrity”), where his Seven Promises […]