Nevada's John Ensign Resigns

"How's my hair?" Image from source, ABC News

Well, Captain Hairdo finally cashed in his chips. Or rather, he's cashing them out in early May, for some reason. He was busted all the way back in 2009 for making sweet love down by the fire with a staffer's wife. Slowly, the facts came out that said staffer and wife (and their son) benefited greatly from John Ensign's (and his parents') largess. Maybe illegally, surely unethically. For a while, he acted like he'd be running for reelection in 2012. He ultimately announced that he'd retire when his term was up. He commented several times that if he resigned, it would be as good as saying he was guilty.

Now he's announced his resignation. You connect the dots. Meanwhile, Nevada politics has been thrown into a tizzy. Dean Heller, currently a US Congressman, was going to run for Ensign's seat in 2012, but now is a shoo-in to be installed by Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval, a Republican. This leaves Congresswoman Shelley Berkley in a tricky spot, since she's already announced that she'd likely be running for the Senate seat. Instead of a contest of current Congresspeople, Berkley would be running against a sitting Senator.  And then there is resident nutball Sharron Angle. She was running for Heller's seat, but now she gets a shot at a special election for his seat, a time when voter turnout will likely be light. So she may get swept in, in a fluke, and have incumbency in her favor in 2012!

Could Ensign have planned it this way? Unlikely. If he just wanted to make it hard on Berkley, he could have waited until she had a lot more invested in the race. If Ensign wanted to boost Heller and/or Angle, he could have resigned earlier. More likely, he left now because something unsavory was about to happen with his ethics investigation.

[Excerpt]

Sen. John Ensign Announces Resignation From US Senate



Sen. John Ensign announced Thursday he is resigning from his seat in Congress, where he served for 11 years, and he will send a letter to Vice President Joe Biden on Friday stating that his resignation from office will be effective on May 3, 2011. . .
 
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