Tom Coburn and “the Family” Tried to Buy Off Ensign’s Mistress

Tom Coburn, the Senate’s resident morality shrill, has a weird idea of how to enforce "Family" values. He and other members of the cultish "Family" apparently tried to help Ensign buy off his mistress.

Hampton and Ensign were bonded by their conservative evangelical faith. Hampton said he reached out to intermediaries involved in a Christian fellowship home in Washington, D.C., where Ensign and several other powerful Washington figures live.

The group, including Coburn, a well-known conservative, confronted Ensign and suggested that the Hamptons needed to be given financial assistance — in the millions of dollars — to pay off their $1 million-plus mortgage and move them to a new life away from Ensign.

During the confrontation, Ensign agreed to write a letter to Cynthia Hampton expressing remorse, Hampton said.

The letter, which was authenticated by Ralston’s executive producer Dana Gentry, is filled with contrition: “I was completely self-centered and only thinking of myself. I used you for my own pleasure not letting thoughts of you, Doug, Brandon, Blake or Brittany come into my mind,” he wrote, referring to the Hampton children.

But after sending the letter, which bears the date “Feb. 2008,” Hampton said Ensign quickly disavowed it in a conversation with Cynthia Hampton and continued to pursue her.

Hampton said that on that same February weekend, Ensign told him, “I’m in love with your wife.”

Here’s the letter, which is even more juvenile than Sanford’s love emails to his mistress.

So I wonder. Is this a formal policy of "the Family," to buy off members’ mistresses? Did they try to buy off Sanford’s mistress (remember, Sanford was getting martial counseling from "the Family" just like Ensign). Was there an implicit understanding that after their mortgage got paid off by Ensign, they would have to be silent about it, even during Ensign’s potential 2012 Presidential run?

And who else’s mistresses has "the Family" bought off?

  1. freepatriot says:

    so they tried to buy off the mistress, but ensign just couldn’t break off the affair

    remind me again, did ensign have an opinion about the Clinton Impeachment ???

    cuz it seems that the repuglitards impeached Clinton for something that they wont stop doing

    I didn’t know repuglitarded women were so accomplished, sexually speaking

    I’m gonna stop now, afor it gets awful ugly in here …

    • JimWhite says:

      so they tried to buy off the mistress, but ensign just couldn’t break off the affair

      Yep, and Sanford’s downfall was his inability to cut off his affair in Argentina. I wonder what “the Family” offered her? Where does “the Family” get all of its money? I’m betting these guys are diverting campaign cash…

      • Citizen92 says:

        There are some common connections between the NRCC (site of a massive, long-term embezzlement fraud by longtime treasurer Chris Ward) and Ensign’s PAC and campaign committee. There are many common connections between Chris Ward and Suzanne Arceneaux. Arceneaux is a political finance and Washington fundraising doyenne – connecting up to Dick Armey and Switboats. She was the focus of my comment a year and a half ago when I developed suspicions about Cynthia Hampton and her arrangement with the her boss Ensign.

    • Leen says:

      FLASHBACK: Ensign Called On Clinton To Resign After Admitting Affair — ‘He Has No Credibility Left’

      http://thinkprogress.org/2009/06/16/ensign-affair/

      Ensign Whacked Clinton For His Infidelities, Called Them “Embarrassing” For Country
      http://www.huffingtonpost.com/…..16508.html

      ## Do you think Ensign will “whack” himself? In our dreams.

      If only these over blown politicians would think with their heads instead of their

      subjected myself to some mainstream news tonight. On Hardball it was Obama’s ratings in Ohio, then a chunk of time on Sarah Palin, David Letterman on Sarah Palin, then the number of how many folks watched the Jackson dedication, next to adultery (Ensign, Edwards, Clinton, Sanford) back to Micheal Jackson, and more on Sarah Palin.

      Christ I felt like the National Enquirer had bought a spot on MSNBC

  2. klynn says:

    Someday, EW, you and I will have a face to face informational chat about The Family that I think you will appreciate. I am so glad you have been addressing this.

  3. freepatriot says:

    Someday, EW, you and I will have a face to face informational chat about The Family that I think you will appreciate. I am so glad you have been addressing this.

    is this gonna involve a parking garage and a flag in a potted plant ???

    been there, done that

    but go ahead an do it again

    it worked out pretty good the first time

    and this guy ensign will never get work at Hallmark …

    • klynn says:

      Made my comment and then dashed away for the rest of the evening.

      I would would definitely meet you in Bowling Green. We’ll have to work out a calendar date. (Your writing schedule, my “little klynn’s schedules).

  4. WilliamOckham says:

    And we get a classic non-denial from Senator Coburn:

    From Coburn spokesman John Hart:

    “Dr. Coburn did everything he could to encourage Senator Ensign to end his affair and to persuade Senator Ensign to repair the damage he had caused to his own marriage and the Hampton’s marriage. Had Senator Ensign followed Dr. Coburn’s advice, this episode would have ended, and been made public, long ago.”

    (h/t Politico)

    • Mary says:

      Had “Doc” Coburn told the truth about the affair it also would have, “been made public, long ago.”

      So his excuse for not telling the truth is …?

      @9 – Congrats!

        • fatster says:

          I don’t think Jesus would like them very much, period. He had that habit of always hanging out with poor people, dontcha know. Feeding them, loving them, comforting them, teaching them, assuring them that they mattered. Unfortunately, his teachings got turned inside out as the centuries progressed.

        • Hmmm says:

          Well, after all, The Family has The Newer Testament, and we don’t, so who are we Unwashed Masses to whine at God’s Chosen Leaders?

      • Leen says:

        Always thought this suicide was odd. Why would you hang yourself if you had the goods on so many of those moral folks in D.C.
        D.C. Madam’ commits suicide, police say
        Palfrey had been convicted of running $2 million prostitution ring

        ‘D.C. Madam’ commits suicide
        May 2: A woman convicted two weeks ago of running a high-end prostitution ring and being the “D.C. Madam” hangs herself. NBC’s Pete Williams reports.

        TARPON SPRINGS, Fla. – The woman convicted of running a high-end Washington prostitution ring that snagged a senator killed herself Thursday, police said, weeks after she was convicted on charges she vowed not to go to prison for.
        http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24408142/

      • cinnamonape says:

        But secret pay-off is “silence money”…not likely. Coburn’s claims are just full of horsedada.

        IF you are going public with the affair and deal BOTH would have to be revealed at the Press Conference…all the sordid facts, and make everyone aware that this money isn’t public funds, but Ensigns own money plus the donations of the “Family” and GOP. Lawyers from the Hampton’s would give a statement. Otherwise the money would look like a bribe. But I don’t think Coburn’s gang ever intended to let Ensign’s fate sit with the voters.

        The deal was supposedly arranged, the letter written…did Coburn compel Ensign to go public? NO.

        So what would be the punishment for that? Exposure in a manner that would be “out of his control”. But Coburn and the Family kept it secret still. Even after Ensign renewed the affaire.

        The only thing that makes sense is that Coburn & Company wanted the affaire OVER, and hushed up.

  5. WilliamOckham says:

    Just to follow up, “repair the damage” in Coburn’s statement probably includes the payoff to the Hamptons.

  6. hate2haggle says:

    Marcy you are one hard workin’ woman. Before I go to bed each night I say, “I’m so happy EW is on our side.”

    • posaune says:

      talk about productivity! there should be an EW productivity factor.

      and, btw, do you guys know how painful it is to cruise through the blog at work & not be able to comment until I get home? you know, govt servant and all.

      • Leen says:

        She must be walking the dog again. She is up with a new one about the clouds hanging over Cheney. More like a simmering storm

  7. readerOfTeaLeaves says:

    cuz it seems that the repuglitards impeached Clinton for something that they wont stop doing

    Bill Clinton went to Argentina? And broke up the marriages of his employees??

    Damn, I’m so outta the loop…

  8. Citizen92 says:

    So where were the $1M plus funds going to be coming from?

    The “church” coffers at C Street? Might the IRS want to now reconsider C Street’s “religious” tax exemption since the “ministry” was going to effect a mistress payoff?

    Or maybe the funds were going to come from Doug Coe’s 501(c)(3) foundation? $1M would be a lot for that organization too, considering they only reported in the neighborhood of $12M last year.

    Or maybe Senator Coburn was going to use his good Senatorial offices to lean on former Countrywide CEO Angelo Mozillo, or Freddie Mac, or another mortgage type to “take care of the problem” as a “favor.”

    It seems as though the Hamptons got their mortgage through Household Financial, who was a notorious subprime lender, run by HSBC before it was shuttered.

    Just how were they going to deliver the hush money?

  9. posaune says:

    Hey, who’s the resident handwriting analyst?

    There’s a reason ransom notes are blocked caps or paste-ups.

  10. Citizen92 says:

    Quoting from Ensign’s letter:

    “He (God) wants to restore Darlene + me and he wants to restore Doug + you.”

    Knowing that God talks to members of the Family directly (because they are chosen to lead, after all, and Scripture is for suckers, as they say)… what were the particulars of God’s conversation with Senator Ensign that he references in the letter? When and where did it occur?

    And what penance does Ensign have to pay after directly disobeying God’s directly expressed intent?

  11. Hmmm says:

    Huh. DC… Christian groups on the downlow… There wouldn’t be any links between “The Family” and Hil Clinton’s prayer circle, would there? Probably not since “The Family” seems such a corporatist R mecca, but can’t help wondering. (I’m just a Berkeley hippie anarchist, so all them Christers look alike to me…)

  12. Hmmm says:

    WO@32 – Thanks.
    fatster@33 – Wow, I thought that rang a bell. Thanks muchly for delaying my early-onset-Alzheimer’s self-diagnosis for another week or two.

    Man, I thought all them Christers looked alike…

  13. PJEvans says:

    Typo alert:

    Sanford was getting martial counseling from “the Family”

    I hope you meant marital counseling!