SO, HOW ABOUT John Ensign?

[Waylon]

By Ronnie Polaneczky
Philadelphia Daily News
http://www.philly.com/philly/phillywomen/48402957.html

SO, HOW ABOUT John Ensign?

The right-wing Nevada senator admitted this week that he'd had an affair with a campaign aide, the wife of one of his employees. Ensign called it "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." (Well, except for his previous affair, that is... -ed)

Snort. I'll bet.

After all, this blow-dried hypocrite from the craps 'n' blackjack state has been a defender of the sanctity of "traditional" marriage ever since he backed a proposed constitutional amendment defining the institution as a union between a man and a woman only.

"Marriage," he said in 2004, "is an extremely important institution in this country and protecting it is, in my mind, worth the extraordinary step of amending our Constitution."

But apparently not worth the extraordinary step of keeping his pecker in his pants. So much for this self-righteous Promise Keeper keeping his promise.

Ensign did the resignation-of-shame thing yesterday, quitting his post as chairman of the Republican Policy Committee. He needed to, given how he'd once demanded that restroom crawler Larry Craig and intern trawler Bill Clinton quit their gigs in the wake of sexual stupidities.

At least Ensign's marriage has perked up. During his public mea culpa, he took pains to note that he and his wife have repaired their union, which is now "stronger than ever."

Almost sounds like a ringing endorsement of infidelity, doesn't it? Except that, according to an anonymous source referred to in a story by the Associated Press, Ensign needed time off back in 2002 to deal with the fall-out of an earlier affair.

So, infidelity hasn't been the most reliable of marriage-strengtheners for the Ensigns when it comes to the long term.