Sen. John Ensign: The GOP’s Latest Family Values Hypocrite

Last updated on August 10th, 2014 at 05:28 pm

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With the news that Republican Sen. John Ensign has admitted that he had an extramarital affair with one of his campaign staffers, it is time to add his name to list of Republicans who don’t practice what they preach in terms of family values. Here are some Ensign quotes on marriage.

Ensign made a statement tonight in Las Vegas where he admitted the affair, “I came home to Nevada to come forward and explain to the citizens of our state something that I was involved in about a year ago. Last year I had an affair. I violated the vows of my marriage. It is the worst thing I have ever done in my life. If there was ever anything in my life that I could take back, this would be it. I take full responsibility for my actions.”

The problem isn’t that Ensign had an affair. These things happen. The problem is that Ensign has built his political career by preaching family values. When Larry Craig was busted for soliciting gay sex in an airport bathroom, Ensign said that Craig was, “embarrassing not only to himself and his family but to the United States Senate.”

Ensign has also been a defender of “traditional marriage.” Ensign said, “The effort to pass a constitutional amendment reaffirming marriage as being between a man and a woman only is being undertaken strictly as a defense of marriage against the attempt to redefine it and, in the process, weaken it. Marriage is an extremely important institution in this country and protecting it is, in my mind, worth the extraordinary step of amending our constitution.”

He also called for Bill Clinton to resign during the Lewinsky scandal, “I came to that conclusion recently, and frankly it’s because of what he put his whole Cabinet through and what he has put the country through,” Ensign said Thursday, becoming the first member of the Nevada delegation to call for Clinton to quit. “He has no credibility left.”

Ensign was on CNN in April, ” I believe that marriage should be defined as that between one man and one woman. You want to do what is ideal for children and all of the studies show that the ideal for children is to be in a household with a father and a mother.”

He continued, “Now, that doesn’t always work, obviously. We know that. I was raised by a single mom and that’s — you know, single moms can do a great job. But the ideal for children in all of the social studies that have been done out there is to be in a home with a man and a woman. And the government should strive for the ideal, for children especially.”

The problem, politically speaking, isn’t the affair. It is the hypocrisy of supposedly being concerned about morals and family values while having an affair. Ensign now joins a long list of so called values Republicans that includes Sen. David Vitter, Larry Craig, and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich who have all had sex scandals. Sex scandals are not a good thing for a political party that prides itself on being a defender of the American family.

Ensign was being touted as a rising star within the GOP, and possibly a 2012 presidential candidate, but that is all gone now. He has proven himself to be nothing more than a hypocritical politician who told Republican voters what they wanted to hear, all the while personifying the old adage, do what I say, not what I do.

Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

Awards and  Professional Memberships

Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association