1 Boring Old Man

Cindy [Ensign’s Affair] and Darlene [Ensign’s Wife] were apparently high school friends. I suppose the point here isn’t exactly about his tastes in women, but something a bit more substantive. If the information so far is to be trusted, John Ensign has had three affairs, all the while living in a house in Washington on Avenue C called "the family," with a bunch of Christian Right congressmen. John Ensign, father of three, scion of Republican Conservatism, member of Promise-Keepers, is a hypocrite – aka liar. But is it really fair to judge him harshly for this behavior that wanders from the morality he preaches, the republican party line?

In this political climate, I think the answer would have to be a loud "yes." While the Religious Right was certainly a force as far back as Reagan, it really came into its own in the late 1990’s, in part aided by the repeated indiscretions of a Democratic President, Bill Clinton. I suppose that one could argue that the Republicans could be accused of never letting up on Clinton’s philandering ways, ergo, they deserve the same treatment. But that’s no real argument. The real meat of the thing in Ensign’s case is his own attacks on others for their affairs – Clinton in specific. This man [these men] ran of a platform of family values, monogamy, heterosexual marriage, pro-life, etc. They wanted to blur the boundaries between government and the Christian Church, a version of the Christianity dead set on imposing a defined set of values on all Americans. As it turns out, these were values they did not achieve in their own lives. Fair game…