Senator John Ensign, a well-known social conservative and family-values advocate, admitted on June 16 to an eight-month extramarital affair with a married campaign aide. The Nevada Republican's sober confession, read before a pack of reporters in Las Vegas, doubtlessly dashed the hopes of many in the party who considered Ensign an emerging national leader. The 51-year-old even fanned the flames of presidential speculation earlier this month with a trip to the key presidential-primary state of Iowa. Beyond embarrassing the second-term Senator, the revelation opened him to charges of hypocrisy: he had previously called on both President Bill Clinton and former Idaho Senator Larry Craig to resign after their own sex scandals.
Ensign, who has earned a reputation as one of Congress’ most active and ardent social conservatives, is also a born-again Christian and member of Promise Keepers, a male evangelical group that promotes fidelity. Add him to the ever-growing list of "moral" Republicans who constantly tell us how to live our lives and deny the rights of gays to marry, yet keep getting caught up in scandals like these. Let's take a look back at some of the more memorable examples from the past few years, shall we?
- Mark Foley, US Congressman from Florida. Engaged in sexually-explicit text-messaging with 17-yo former male pages. He had been chairman of the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children.
- Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of the House. Married three times. Gingrich campaign worker Anne Manning admitted that she gave Newt oral sex while he was still married to his first wife. Informed one wife he was filing for divorce while she was in the hospital recovering from cancer treatments.
- David Vitter, Senator from Lousiana. His number was included in the telephone records of an escort service run by Deborah Jeane Palfrey, a woman dubbed by the news media as the "D.C. Madam." Since then, other prostitutes have come forward saying that he was a former client.
- Larry Craig, former Idaho Senator. Voted yes on a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, he voted against a bill that would have banned job discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, and against expanding the definition of hate crimes to include sexual orientation. Pleaded guilty to "lewd" disorderly conduct after an undercover police officer interpreted his actions in a men's rest room at Minneapolis-St.Paul International Airport as a solicitation for sex.
- Rudy Giuliani, former NYC Mayor and candidate for President. Married three times. Accused by his fomer wife of "notorious adultery." Several examples of cross-dressing. He plans to use his opposition to gay marriage as a central plank in his run for NY Govenor in 2010, although he used to live with a gay couple.
- Bob Barr, Republican Congressman from Georgia. Sponsored the anti-gay Defense of Marriage Act, saying "The flames of hedonism, the flames of narcissism, the flames of self-centered morality are licking at the very foundation of our society, the family unit." Was married three times. Although he has called abortion murder, he paid for his second wife's abortion. Failed to pay child support to the children of his first two wives and while married to his third and present wife was photographed licking whipped cream off of strippers at his inaugural party.
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