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Rep. Pete Hoekstra is getting mercilessly, but wittily, heckled on Twitter for comparing the plight of pro-democracy demonstrators in Iran to the House GOP minority. We’ve put together some of the best responses.
The closer you look at the John Ensign love triangle, the stranger it becomes. Something just doesn’t feel right about the allegation that the husband of the senator’s love interest — both of whom were staffers for Ensign — was trying to run some sort of extortion hustle, which forced Ensign to go public and admit the affair.
First off, the two couples were reportedly close. Ensign and the husband, Doug Hampton, have been described as like brothers. Second, Doug Hampton was a, if not the, top staffer to Ensign. Third, Cynthia Hampton was treasurer of Ensign’s own campaign, and he turned to her when a longtime GOP treasurer suspected of embezzlement was ousted from Ensign’s leadership PAC. Even the Hampton’s son worked for Ensign at the NRSC for a time.
Maybe all that can be explained away by the bad blood and toxic feelings that an affair would leave behind. Maybe. But as Zack Roth reports, even after the affair, after Cynthia had been reportedly paid a severance to leave Ensign’s campaign, and after Doug left his Senate staff, Doug went to work for a Nevada-based airline whose CEO and his wife are big political contributors to Ensign and for the political consulting firm that represents Ensign. It’s a very tangled web. My gut is there’s more to this story.
The attorney for the former staffers in the Ensign love triangle released a statement this afternoon:
Doug and Cindy Hampton can confirm that they are the individuals referenced by Sen. Ensign during his press conference.
It is unfortunate the senator chose to air this very personal matter, especially after the Hamptons did everything possible to keep this matter private.
It is equally unfortunate that he did so without concern for the effect such an announcement would have on the Hampton family.
In time the Hamptons will be ready and willing to tell their side of the story. Until then, please respect their privacy.
A lawyer. An (alleged) demand for money. Tried to keep it private. Ready and willing to tell their side of story. I smell lawsuit.
TPM Reader LM not loving the architectural stylings of Chez Hampton:
What always strikes me about these mega mcmansions is, well, the incredibly bad taste: rooms too large, ridiculous over the top “faux” European furnishings. Is this considered “great living”? Great design?
Most of America’s top architects would blanche at these so called “posh” surroundings. It strikes me that these lavish, badly designed, ugly places often fit the people who chose to live in them.
Oh Philip Johnson, Frank Lloyd Wright, and many others. You are rolling in your graves …
Late Update: It’s mafia chic, says TPM Reader LP:
Wow, reader LM is so right — it is cheese-o-licious! Also, between the kitchen, the dining room off the main entry, and the furnishings, it looks *remarkably* like Tony and Carmella’s house on the Sopranos. Go ahead, review a few episodes and you’ll see what I mean.
Got off to a rough start …
But eventually we were cool …
Tune in for tonight’s episode.
Former President George W. Bush deviates from his much-touted practice of not criticizing his successor to commit another crime against the English language:
I’ll just tell you that there are people at Gitmo that will kill American people at a drop of a hat and I don’t believe that persuasion isn’t going to work.
That and the day’s other political news in the TPMDC Morning Roundup.
On his first try at apologizing for his racist joke about Michelle Obama (said she was a relative of a gorilla), GOP bigwig Rusty DePass tried to blame the joke on Michelle herself. That doesn’t seem to have gone over that well. So now he’s trying a more abject sorry.