John Ensign, the junior senator from the State of Nevada, has resigned his role as the Senate Republican Policy Committee Chairman one day after admitting having an extra-martial marital affair with a member of his campaign staff. Ensign, who had been in the role as chairman since January 2001, said that he had been involved in an affair between December 2007 and August 2008. He has stated that he will remain in the US Senate.
The revelation came as somewhat of a surprise. Ensign will not be up for reelection again until 2012, and there doesn't appear to be any signal that the information was likely to come out on its own. But the man The Washington Post has called a 'rising star' in the Republican Party has more and more been considered to be a potential candidate in the 2012 United States presidential election. The possibility exists that Ensign, a former casino pit boss, is clearing his closet of any major skeletons before embarking on a national campaign.
But the question of whether or not Ensign may be being blackmailed has been raised as well. The Drudge Report was among the first to raise the specter that the Senator is being extorted, though his campaign spokesman denied this was the case. Nonetheless, Ensign's out-of-the-blue announcement leaves an important question unanswered: why would a politician with national ambitions make such a seemingly-unprompted admission?
Ensign told reporters that the affair "is 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."
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell accepted his resignation during a phone call. The campaigner with whom Ensign had the affair is married to a fellow aide. Neither has worked for the senator since May 2008.
Both Senator Ensign and his aide refused to comment on his long-term political future.
