Related Documents (.pdf)
Doug Hampton's e-mail to ex-Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum
E-mails between Doug Hampton and Mike Slanker
E-mail from Lindsey Slanker to Cindy Hampton
Washington — Republican Sen. John Ensign is methodically trying to turn the page after admitting to having an affair with a former campaign staffer, but new details make it difficult to move on as the story is still being written.
E-mails obtained Monday by Las Vegas Sun columnist Jon Ralston show that Ensign’s top staff at the National Republican Senatorial Committee knew of the affair last summer, before the party suffered severe losses in the 2008 election that put Democrats in sight of a filibuster-proof Senate.
Ensign largely received a pass from his colleagues after the devastating electoral defeat as eight Republican seats eventually switched to Democratic control. Mostly, they blamed the outcome on a bad year for the party as President George W. Bush’s popularity plummeted.
Read on.
More from TPM:
First, that just one day before Ensign publicly acknowledged his affair with Doug's wife Cindy this June, Doug had emailed former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum about it, and had told Santorum that he'd also informed Fox News. That revelation will add to speculation that it was Santorum who tipped off his friend Ensign that Hampton planned to go public.
And second, that Mike Slanker, the Ensign aide who ran the National Republican Senatorial Committee and later gave Hampton a job at his consulting firm, knew last summer about the affair. Slanker had previously told the AP he was unaware of the affair until Ensign publicly admitted to it.
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