The Zipped Pants Caucus

More details are coming out about Sen. John Ensign's admitted affair with a campagn worker.

Political insiders in Nevada and in the Senate said that Ensign decided to acknowledge the affair publicly after the husband of the woman he had been seeing asked him for a substantial sum of money.

Ensign described the affair Tuesday as “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. I take full responsibility for my actions,” he said.

As the details come out, it shows that Ensign did the absolutely right thing by making this public. That is the proper response to blackmail.

Given the pressures of being a U.S. Senator, and the fact that he and his wife were estranged at the time of the affair, and that Ensign told his wife about the affair and ended it when they got back together....I still don't care.

You're a United State Senator. Until yesterday, you had aspirations to run for President. Keep it in your freaking pants!

Setting a Higher Standard

Seriously! I mean, c'mon. I like John Ensign a lot. He was a great member of the Commerce Committee when I was working there, generally standing up for the right ideas. So was David Vitter.

But keep it in your freaking pants!

Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) has acknowledged an extramarital affair with a campaign staffer in a statement released by his office. "I deeply regret and am very sorry for my actions," said Ensign. He is expected to announce the affair at a press conference at 6:30 pm tonight. The affair, which was with a woman who worked for both Ensign's re-election campaign and his Battle Born leadership political action committee, began in December 2007 and ended in August 2008. Ensign's wife, Darlene, said that the couple's "marriage has become stronger" and added: "I love my husband."

The link between sex and power is hardly a partisan phenomenon. How about we start a Third Party based on a platform of not being a cheating scumbag. We'll call it the Zipped Pants Caucus. It's a low threshold, but I think voters might prefer politicians who underpromise and overdeliver.