John Ensign: Politics Above All Else

Senator John Ensign (R-NV), the chairman of the NRSC, the Senate GOP's campaign arm, apparently has no problem speaking out of both sides of his mouth. Granted, that is a talent you need to succeed in politics, but Ensign is being pretty brazen in how he is going about doing it.

Here's what John Ensign said after Senator Ted Stevens was convicted of seven separate felonies in federal district court:

“I am disappointed to see his career end in disgrace,” he said in a statement. “Sen. Stevens had his day in court, and the jury found he violated the public’s trust — as a result, he is properly being held accountable. This is a reminder that no one is above the law.”

Yet, despite Ensign's strong words that his colleague had disgraced himself and the U.S. Senate, here is what he is doing now:

Sen. John Ensign (Nev.), the head of the Senate GOP's campaign committee, urged financial backers to come to the aid of Sen. Ted Stevens (Alaska) and two other imperiled Republican Senators, even though Ensign said on Election Day he expected Stevens to be expelled from the Senate if voters sent him back to Washington, D.C. “If Ted Stevens happens to get re-elected, I think he will be expelled," Ensign said Tuesday.

In a Thursday e-mail to supporters, Ensign thanked donors for helping fund the National Republican Senatorial Committee's general election efforts and asked them to help in recounts and runoff races in Alaska, Minnesota and Georgia.

So, what's changed? I think it is pretty clear that Ensign -- along with everyone else -- thought that Alaska's voters would do their duty and oust Stevens on November 4 so that the Senate would not have to worry about him and his convictions. However, that did not happen, and now Stevens is narrowly ahead in re-election contest (with many votes left to be counted) and likely to be sent back to Washington by obstinate Alaskans. As result, rather than stand by his words that Stevens should be tossed from the Senate, Ensign is now actively raising money is his capacity as NRSC head to preserve Stevens' seat in the face of a near-certain recount.

I understand Ensign's motivation here. He doesn't want to have to deal with the expulsion proceeding of a longtime colleague. However, what is more important to him is preserving the seat so that it can be handed off to another Republican -- most likely Sarah Palin -- in 2009. This does not surprise me a hair, but I nonetheless find it sad that politics trumps everything else yet again. Even when we are dealing with a convicted felon.