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As a boy, young John Ensign learned many valuable lessons from his dad
Who is more laughable?
The Ensign family consigliore:
Senator John Ensign’s wealthy parents gave almost $100,000 to his former lover and her family, ostensibly out of concern for their welfare and as part of a “pattern of generosity,” his lawyer disclosed Thursday.
A statement by his lawyer, Paul Coggins, on behalf of the Mr. Ensign, a Republican from Nevada, said that in April 2008 the senator’s parents each gave $12,000 apiece to Cindy Hampton, her husband, Doug, and two of their children in the form of a single check for $96,000.
“The payments were made as gifts, accepted as gifts and complied with tax rules governing gifts,” the statement read. Under federal tax regulations, $12,000 is the most that a person can receive as a gift from any one person without having to declare or pay taxes on it.
[...]
“After the senator told his parents about the affair,” the statement issued by Mr. Coggins said, “his parents decided to make the gifts out of concern for the well-being of longtime family friends during a difficult time. The gifts are consistent with a pattern of generosity by the Ensign family to the Hamptons and others.
Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) on Thursday said he would not testify in court or before the Ethics Committee about any advice he gave Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) on how to handle his affair with a former staffer, citing constitutional protections for communications during religious counseling, as well as the patient confidentiality privilege.
“I was counseling him as a physician and as an ordained deacon. … That is privileged communication that I will never reveal to anybody. Not to the Ethics Committee, not to a court of law, not to anybody,” Coburn said.
Remember when they used to smirk and mock the expression "It depends upon what the meaning of the word ‘is’ is"
Good times.
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The Republican Clintonism: I did not offer bribes after not having sex with that woman.
Fuck them all. I am so sick and tired of the hypocrisy.
Counseling him as a physician? Coburn is an OB/GYN.
Maybe there is still more to this story.
“The gifts are consistent with a pattern of generosity by the Ensign family to the Hamptons and others who have been sexual targets of Sen. Ensign.“
There, FIFY.
Cindy and Doug Hampton get to spend the rest of their lives knowing that their self-respect is worth the price of a modestly equipped Toyota Camry. Wonder how it feels to not only know that you can be bought and bought cheaply at that.
Doug Hampton: Hey Cindy, how about you whore-together the bucks for one of those big flat screen TV’s before the World Series? And blow the neighbor kid to mow the lawn while you’re at it.
Hope he takes Tom Coburn down with him. Couldn’t happen to a better moralizing republican twit.Not that I’m holding out hope for that, being that Oklahoma is where Bush got multiple standing ovations recently. Oklahoma’s other senator is the clown Inhofe.
Holding your son’s wedding party: $125K
Paying off your son’s ex-mistress: $96K
Hypocritical GOP Family Values: Priceless.
There are some things money can’t buy, for everything else there’s Rich Old White Man’s Privilege.
With all of Ensign’s trials and tribulations, it must be comforting for him to realize that at least his gynecologist is sticking with him.
Sen. Tom Coburn: Lawyer. Deacon. Advisor. Dick.
Does this mean he has experience in these matters?
I’d have disappeared for $96k. Cheap motherfuckers!
–Levi Johnston
Lessee, Eliot Spitzer, Democratic Governor of New York, gave a gift of money to Alexandra Dupre after having sex with her and was forced to resign in disgrace.
Republican Senator John Ensign gave a gift of money to Cindy Hampton after having sex with her and is still a U.S. Senator with access to power and the privileges of his office.
from wikipedia
Prostitution: Prostitution is defined as the act of engaging in sexual activity in exchange for money or goods.
So what’s the difference? One has a “D” and the other an “R” after their name. Obviously. Also.
I had a vague recollection of this, from Wikipedia:
What a hypocritical macaroon.
The Reverend Doctor Coburn: “John, as your priest and your physician, I advise you to call your mom and ask her to pay off the husband of the woman you’ve been fucking. Go, my son, and sin no more. And take these pills for than nasty discharge. Now, if you’ll give your medical insurance card to the receptionist, we’ll take care of the fee for the doctor part. Leave a few bucks in the offering plate for the spiritual part.”
Residents of TBoggistan, please pray for me. I live in Oklahoma and this clown represents me.
“please pray for me. I live in Oklahoma”
I lived there for 25 years. Then I realized I was free to leave.
(Chckasha, OK. Home of the Fightin’ Chicks, the worst-named football team in the world.)
Well at least Coburn cares about the confidentiality of ONE person’s privacy. He single-handedly held up passage of the Genetic Information Non-Discrimination (GINA) bill a couple of years back due to concerns about the financial impact on insurers and employers. The bill makes it a crime to use people’s private genetic information to deny health care coverage or employment. Senator Coburn did not agree that sick people deserve the sanctity of privileged communication with their physicians because the cost to employers and the health insurance industry might be burdensome. The existing HIPAA laws do not adequately protect sick people–or even those who are not even sick yet, but have the genetic propensity to maybe become sick one day–from insurance or employment discrimination. GINA (which eventually overwhelmingly passed) was an attempt to close these loopholes. So Tom Coburn is a physician sort of in the same ‘Medicare scamming, video diagnosing’ way Bill Frist is. Apparently Coburn’s concern over patient confidentiality only applies to perfectly healthy, wealthy White men with a congenitally absent moral compass. If you happen to be have inherited a genetic condition beyond your control you’re fair game.
I think there maybe needs to be a Constitutional amendment banning physicians and religious officials from holding elected office if they are going to use their credentials to assert privilege and abet corruption.
This is so cool!
As an officially certified Reverend in the Eternal Life Church… one of my early intertubes meanderings… I anticipate being able to parley my status as a possible confidant to juicy political crap BIG TIME (h.t.-thanks, Mr. Cheney!) Get out your checkbooks, the line forms to the right!
Yep, just last week friends of mine came to our house for dinner and said, ‘hey, know what hatmandu, here’s 15k. And another 15k for Mrs. Hatmandu. And you know what else? Here’s 15k for your cat. Just cuz we like. It’s a gift.’ And I graciously accepted it as a gift.
Christ, they’re not even trying with the spin anymore.
heydave, I was just gonna write the same thing! I’m an ordained minister via the Universal Life Church (ain’t the internet a womderful thing?). I can hardly wait to use the “priviliged communication” cop-out in a court of law.
Coburn better have a medical record of his counselling Ensign, ’cause medical privilege doesn’t cover any and all conversations with someone who happens to be a doctor. There has to be a doctor-patient relationship. And “ordained deacon”? WTF? Is he authorized to hear confessions? That too sounds like a desperate attempt to apply privilege where it doesn’t exist. Time for an Ethics Committee supoena!
I’m so sorry; it has to suck when you have to stay someplace that politically makes your skin crawl. When Texas secedes, it makes sense for them to take Oklahoma with them, and then you can parlay your US citizenship rights to escape the newly feudalized Republic of South Dumbassistan. Careful though who you tell that you aren’t sticking around for the bold new experiment in Union v. Confederacy; they might not take kindly to your apostacy, especially since you obviously hold some military secrets re: dirigible and zeppelin technology.
And they can only be allowed to secede if they take Coburn and Imhofe with them.
Deacon! Hokey smokes. Stand back! Let the man through!
I have a couple of practical questions re Ensign:
1) when is his term up?
2) any chance of a Democratic opponent?
3) if Ensign were to resign, would his replacement be appointed or elected, and is that criminal idiot whom Nevada used to have as governor still in office.
Just tryin’ to look ahead.
As an ordained pastafarian of the highest order in the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, I will NEVER reveal the secrets behind my pasta sauce. That is privileged communication that I will never reveal to anybody. Not to the Ethics Committee, not to a court of law, not to anybody.
Pasta sauce recipes are sacred in our church.
http://www.venganza.org/
I don’t think my prayers would domuch good. You may need something stronger for these motherfuckers anyway, like a silver bullet or a stake through the heart.
A physician and an ordained deacon. My goodness. I bet he also encrypted his notes with his Captain Midnight secret decoder ring from Ovaltine.
Especially if Ensign was working out a gender-identity transition.
Then again, maybe we should also see if Coburn has any trips to Buenos Aires in his past. Did Governor Sanford have him along to satisfy any kinky-doc fetishes on Ms. Chapur’s part? As Peggy Noonan said, it’s irresponsible not to speculate.
funny how that patient/penitent confidentiality thingy didn’t kick in before the heat got turned up – I seem to recall a certain Deacon Nitwit flapping his jaws about everything before this latest disclosure
via Las Vegas Sun:
Democratic Rep. Shelley Berkley acknowledged the affair has “opened up possibilities” for her political future as supporters are encouraging her to run for Ensign’s Senate seat when he is up for reelection in 2012, she said
looks like Jim Gibbons is still Gov
linky
15 years — Ponca City, OK
1st grade through high school in Ponca. I think I’ve recovered, though I still have flashbacks, mainly due to those fundies on the national stage. Ponca has more fundies than you can imagine.
I read somewhere on the intertoobs that the fair&balanced Fox Noise is not reporting the Ensign situation. Sean Hannity has not mentioned Senator Ensign. If Ensign was a Dem, it would be the lead story on Faux for the rest of the summer.
Sen. Tom Coburn: Lawyer. Deacon. Advisor. Dick.
Sen. Tom Coburn: Lawyer. Deacon. Dick advisor.
Fixed.
For FauxNews Ensign doesn’t have to be a Democrat. They’ll just label him as a Dem. In fact I think they did. I can’t keep up with all these Repub scandals. They either labelled Ensign or Sanford as a Dem and had to issue a correction.
It’s a variation on one way Rich Old White Men (and their compliant spouses) preserve and pass on the Privilege of Wealth.
Wealthy people, like Ensign’s parents, make annual exclusion gifts to children and grandchildren to transfer assets to their descendants, free of all taxes. When the gift is made, the donor pays no gift tax; the donee pays no income tax; and when the donor dies, the gifted assets are beyond the reach of estate tax.
So usually, when a wealthy couple makes annual exclusion gifts to the children of the woman whom their son is screwing, it’s because the children are the couple’s grandchildren: fathered by their son, borne by their daughter-in-law.
With the Ensigns, there’s a kink, or two, in the works.
Why does believing in an imaginary vengeful, genocidal bearded old White Guy give anyone privilege?
The only privilege Coburn deserves is visitation on weekends and holidays.
Time for an Ethics Committee Subpoena? Hell, I think it’s time for the MSM check and see what’s in Coburn’s closet
And while we’re at it, what’s an “ordained Deacon?” Where I come from, the only “ordained” clergy are priests and ministers. Deacons are laity.
(Chckasha, OK. Home of the Fightin’ Chicks, the worst-named football team in the world.)
Off topic I suppose, but I must note that my alma mater (and I say that with a shudder), The Canon-McMillan Big Macs of Canonsburg, PA have the worst football team name in the world.
I wish I were kidding.
Coburn is a Southern Baptist. While practices vary from one congregation to another, in many Southern Baptist congregations deacons have responsibilities for pastoral care of church members and are ordained by the congregation. (Incidentally, deacon is an order of ordained ministry in the Catholic, Anglican, Orthodox and other traditions.)
Whether Coburn was actually acting in a pastoral capacity with his wayward brother Mr. Ensign is another question. Also whether, as a gynecologist, he was acting as Ensign’s physician.