Sen. John Ensign met privately with about a dozen GOP activists this week to apologize for the “distraction” caused by his indiscretion with another man’s wife. But reports from some in attendance indicate that most didn’t give a rat’s pitooey about the affair. What they were seeing red over is the fact that the state GOP is broke, has no staff, no headquarters, no voter registration program….and what was John Ensign going to do about it?
Um….nothing. Surprise.
Ensign reportedly tried to hide behind the McCain-Feingold law, claiming it prevented him from doing anything to help the party. To which one participant pointed out that the law sure as heck hasn’t stopped Harry Reid from raising money for the Democrats.
Excellent point. Indeed, as I noted here several weeks ago, Harry Reid’s PAC donated a hefty quarter-million dollars to the Nevada Democrat Party for the 2008 election.
Ensign’s support for the Nevada GOP? Bupkis.
Ensign later tried to take credit for bailing the party out of debt a decade ago; however, he left out a very important detail: The debt was, essentially, his.
That debt wasn’t for party operations but for a direct mail program using the party’s non-profit bulk permit which directly benefited….John Ensign. And John Ensign had promised to raise the money to pay it off before it was incurred. He was no white knight riding in to save a spend-thrift party. Ensign was simply paying off a debt the party incurred for his own campaign.
One thing Republicans in Nevada are starting to finally realize about John Ensign is that nothing John Ensign does is ever done unless it directly benefits John Ensign. It’s always of John Ensign, by John Ensign and for John Ensign. And he will continue to be a “distraction” for GOP candidates in 2010.
The sooner he resigns, the better for the party.
The least he could do is get his dad to donate a “gift” of, oh, say, $96,000 to the party. I hear he has a history of generosity like that.
