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Coburn On Hampton Claims: "Ask What's the Motivation Here"
It looks like when Tom Coburn denied today that he urged his friend John Ensign to pay restitution to the family of the woman he had an affair with, the Oklahoma senator wasn't speaking just to Roll Call (sub. req.). Rather, in a sign of the potential trouble the story could represent for Coburn, he appears to have given an impromptu press conference, in what's likely to be a failed effort to nip it in the bud.
Politico reports that, along with his denial, Coburn had some choice words for Doug Hampton.
Said the Oklahoman:
John Ensign hasn't put me in a tough position at all. The person that's deceiving now is Doug. And you all need to go do the investigation now on that side of it and quit asking us and ask what's the motivation here.
Coburn also attacked the media for focusing on the story:
You've got two families that are back together and you guys are going to help tear them apart. What do you think their kids are thinking about what you're writing right now? You're helping tear apart two families that are back together - you need to quit.
Meanwhile, the good-government group Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington (CREW) has called on the Justice Department to open a criminal investigation into Hampton's allegation that Ensign paid Cindy Hampton a severance package of over $25,000 when she left his political committee during the affair. That would be an in-kind contribution to the committee -- a felony violation of campaign-finance law if Ensign was not reimbursed. CREW had previously called for Senate Ethics committee and FEC probes into the affair.
Josh
Zachary
Demand Coburn's birth certificate
There is inconvertible evidence in the basement of the Supreme Court that he came from Planet Claire..drove a Plymouth Satellite, faster than the speed of light he did
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVZ5KTxyOOY
July 9, 2009 3:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
Let's see his family papers! Seriously these guys just can't stand to just do the people's work rather they would prefer to grandstand, which is anything but a true conservative.
July 9, 2009 3:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
Didn't King David pay off his mistress too? The Bible obviously protects Republicans from this sort of scrutiny. I wish everyone would just quit with the personal attacks and realize their Walk With God is much higher than a measly blog.
July 9, 2009 3:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
Uh oh. It appears that the media must be getting just a little too close to the truth.
July 9, 2009 3:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
i'm guessing The Family is getting a little skittish with the attention to their less-than pure flock.
July 9, 2009 3:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yep. Even the pro-Republican media is finding the sanctimoniousness of some of the right-wing fundamentalists who have extramarital sexual affairs hard to resist.
More power to the media. If they are going to go there with any politicians, it's about time they went after Republicans who get elected on the fundamentalist religious ticket.
I wonder what Demint, Sessions, Coburn and Inhoff are hiding.
July 9, 2009 3:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
Actually what the guy did was between the family and his God. But how strange to hear Republicans suddenly worry about the public intrusion into marital infidelity. A lot too little, a lot to late after the drumming you guys gave Bill Clinton. So actl like a man and just suck it in. And, in the future, try to remember the old adage re "what goes around comes around". Even as a Republican, I remember the graphic comments about others who had the very same failings as this guy. so basically, just shut up and stop acting like Republicans are all so much more ethical than Democrats. Republicans are just human beings who are flawed just like the rest of us as shown by these last peccadilloes.
July 10, 2009 2:02 AM | Reply | Permalink
I am so sick of these religious assholes. If only the god they claim to believe in existed - I'm sure he would have roasted all of their asses long ago.
July 9, 2009 3:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
Here here. Could not agree more.
July 9, 2009 4:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
Please god, let this end when both are brought up on charges...
July 9, 2009 5:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
Anyone else recall Henry Cisneros? When He was accused of paying off a mistress, these same people pleading "leave the families alone" hounded him with a special prosecutor and criminal charges --- and if I recall correctly, he didn't even run on family values.
July 9, 2009 5:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
Its all hypocrisy and Coburn is disengeuous when he says that he can dodge certain questions because he had advised Ensign as a spiritual counselor. Since he is talking openly about the matter,that fig leaf has been surrendered. Coburn will have to testify under penalty of contempt if he is called.
July 9, 2009 6:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
Definitely. Not only are the claims of physician-patient and pastor-penitent privilege ridiculously stretched, but his earlier disclosure waives any such privilege.
Coburn's latest tactic reminds me of Hunter Thompson's line from Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas: "As your attorney I advise you to take a hit out of the small brown bottle in my shaving kit."
July 9, 2009 6:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
Coburn asked: "What do you think their kids are thinking about what you're writing right now?"
I'll bet the kids are thinking about how they can leverage this scandal into getting massive summer vacations and getting out of being paraded around like trophies at future campaign events, (that is, when they're not busy planning to actually blackmail their parents with personal stories they could sell to TMZ.)
What's that parable about apples not falling far from trees?
July 9, 2009 6:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
Isn't it neat how Coburn is trying to claim Dr./patient and priest/penitent privilege simultaneously? If he had any claim to either he'd just pick one.
No lawyer here, but as an ob/gyn, it hardly seems that he qualifies as Dr. to Ensign. The privacy of the Catholic confessional is another claim unmet by Coburn. Catholic deacons aren't eligible to claim it - and neither is he.
July 9, 2009 6:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
I just watched a segment on Rachel Maddow's show and she had a guy who inflitrated the group that John Ensign, Mark Sanford, Tom Coburn, Jim DeMint and others belong to. They consider themselves the "Chosen Ones" These are some sick bastards. The guy who was under cover said that he attended one of their meetings and one of them asked one of the Senators what he thought people would think of him if he raped 3 little girls. So the guy says they'd think I was a monster and the Senator said, no, you're the chosen one and must lead at all costs or something to that effect. Sick bastards! It does explain why they're all so determined not to resign. It they were Dems they'd have been run out of office by now.
July 9, 2009 9:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
Isn't this called hush money? Ensign should resign. There is a related post at http://iamsoannoyed.com/?page_id=588
July 9, 2009 11:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
Boy, Republicans get pissy when they can't control the message.
July 10, 2009 6:32 AM | Reply | Permalink
I saw the Rachel Maddow segment on the Family too. That scares the crap out of me, people thinking that they are chosen by God and all laws the rest of us have to follow do not apply to them.
I think TPM needs to dig more on this "Family" cult. They remind me of the Koresh clan. Very scary mindset.
July 10, 2009 10:23 AM | Reply | Permalink