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The Downfall of D.C.’s Nemesis
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Washington Post (DC) |
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Saturday, May 14, 2011 |
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Editorial Board |
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Editorial |
PROSPECTS FOR voting rights for the District of Columbia looked good two years ago. The novel idea of pairing a vote for the District with one for Utah had bipartisan support. Democratic control of Congress meant the bill would get to the floor of both houses, where it seemed to enjoy majority support. A Democratic president was poised to sign it into law. Then came John Ensign.
When the D.C. Voting Rights Act came up for a vote on Feb. 26, 2009, Mr. Ensign, then a Republican senator from Nevada, attached a draconian gun amendment that ultimately doomed the effort. As we learn more about Mr. Ensign’s true nature, the idea that this man took it upon himself to deny democratic rights to District residents becomes all the more loathsome.
This week the Senate ethics committee released a blistering report that documents the disgrace that led to Mr. Ensign’s resignation from the Senate and that may result in criminal action against him. Finding “substantial and credible evidence” of federal laws being broken, it has recommended that the Justice Department and the Federal Election Commission (FEC) reopen investigations into Mr. Ensign. Included is the allegation that Mr. Ensign violated federal “cooling-off” rules when he helped Douglas Hampton, an aide in his office and the husband of his former mistress, get clients for his lobbying work.
... the report of the special counsel retained by the committee contains new allegations, albeit one-sided, of Mr. Ensign’s arrogance: How he disregarded a top aide’s warning that efforts to help Mr. Hampton might be unlawful. How relentless he was in pressuring Ms. Hampton, his wife’s best friend, into an affair at a vulnerable moment in her life. How he tried to thwart Senate investigators by deleting incriminating e-mails and perhaps even lying to the FEC.
Mr. Ensign tried to forestall the committee’s work by leaving the Senate a day before he was scheduled to be questioned under oath by investigators. Although the Senate no longer had the right to punish Mr. Ensign, it properly completed its work and made its findings public. That, though, is small consolation to the 600,000 people who live in the nation’s capital and who saw their rights become political fodder for a man of low character.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-downfall-of-dcs-n emesis/2011/05/13/AF8Jl02G_story.html
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