I know I'm supposed to be taking it easy after yesterday's post, but this is pretty huge breaking news, especially for my fellow Okies. The New York Times has broken a whole new chunk of the John Ensign story, nailing him on what seems to be some pretty hefty ethics violations stemming from his extramaritial affair earlier this year. While this is without a doubt big news, the part I'm gasping and blinking about is the bit involving Oklahoma junior senator Tom Coburn and his admission to playing broker to a what seems to be an illegal hush-up between Ensign and his mistress' family.
(photo pasted from the NYT)
Coburn has previously gone on the record as saying that he and other conservative members of the Senate had approached Ensign, urging him to end his affair before it caused irreconcilable harm. Ensign's mistress' husband later fingered Colburn as the one who set up a payoff deal, in which Ensign's parents arranged for a "gift" in the form of hundreds of thousands of dollars in checks to be given to the family, and the mistress' husband be assigned as a lobbyist who lobbied directly to Ensign (which is illegal, as the husband was formerly on Ensign's staff and a full year had not gone by. Also, there was apparently some shady dealing as to getting lobbyists to hire on the husband, not to mention the favors Ensign did in exchange). Coburn denied all charges, claiming that he and others only ever counciled Ensign to end things. Coburn also said that as a deacon and a physician, any conversations he had with Ensign or anyone else would be forever confidential, no matter who asked.
And that was his story, until the new one came out today. Aparently forever didn't last as long as Coburn originally intended. In the article, Coburn admitted to brokering the deal. Here's a
link to the story, and here's the video from the Rachel Maddow Show that almost had me spitting up lentil soup in shock:
To which Judd says: "Holy Batshit, Fatman!"
