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I'm not sure just how "humble" former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford has been when he's done things like ask his ex to manage his campaign, introduced his mistress to his children for the first time onstage after he found out he won his primary race, trespassed on his ex-wife's property and then took out a full page ad explaining it, or having a mock debate with a photo of Nancy Pelosi -- but that's what he claimed during his debate this Monday evening with his Democratic opponent for the U.S. House seat vacated by now Sen. Tim Scott, Elizabeth Colbert Busch

SANFORD: Yeah, I was just going to say, the second part of what I think I would bring to bear is, you don't go through the experience I has back in 2009 without a greater level of humility. And what I would say, what I would say is that willingness to sit down with a Republican or a Democrat alike and say, you know, I know what I believe, I believe what I believe. I believe the facts support what I'm suggesting, but let me just sit down with you and let me just a little bit better understand where you're coming from.

Wow. So it made him more willing to reach across the aisle as well. Who'd have thought getting caught with your mistress "hiking the Appalachian Trail" would do all that for you? Sanford may be a lot of things, but "humble" or "bipartisan" sure as hell aren't the first two things I think of when I hear his name.

Colbert Busch was tough. She did a really good job during the debate, but it's a blood red district, so we'll see how things turn out on election day. Here's more with a recap on the debate for anyone that missed it: Sanford, Colbert Busch square off in SC debate:

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After watching the media obsess over this story all day long, all I can say is thank you Jon Stewart for bringing a little humor and sanity to the matter. Stewart dismantles the Gen. David Petraeus, Paula Broadwell scandal as only he can. Thankfully Eric Cantor was not spared and neither were the conspiracy theorists in the media and over at Fox.

After bemoaning the fact that it was “Captain America” who was found to be having an affair, Stewart went through a portion of his interview from earlier this year with Broadwell and said this about not realizing at the time the affair was going on:

STEWART: The whole thing was like innuendo after innuendo and the whole time, I was like... daaaahhh! I didn't pick up at... I had her right there talking about how thick of a coat of awesome sauce Petraeus is bathed in. The thing never crossed my f**king mind! The whole time, I was just staring at how defined her arms were and trying to think of another version of one of my classic “I'm an asthmatic old Jew” jokes. I am the worst journalist in the world! For God's sake, the title of her book was All In!

Stewart then moved on to the media and the way they covered the story, starting with The Today Show deciding that serial adulterer Newt Gingrich should be the one they turn to for an interview on the the topic. He then moved onto the various conspiracy theories being bantered about.

STEWART: Conspiracy number one: The FBI held back the Petraeus story to prevent Obama from losing the election. […] If only a Republican had known about this on election day.

Cue failure number one and Eric Cantor being informed about the scandal before President Obama. Conspiracy number two, the timing is suspicious and now Petraeus is not going to testify about Benghazi. Or maybe not.

STEWART: They jacked him. Right before he was about to testify on Benghazi. Conspiracy number two: Now we'll never know what Petraeus knew... unless quitting is different from dying and has no bearing on whether Petraeus will have to testify. […] Or will he? Oh, he will. […]

Conspiracy number three: Either the President of the United States blackmailed the head of the CIA, forcing him to agree with the administration's lie, or that theory is stupid. Can't be both!

Cue clueless Peggy Noonan comparing the scandal to Homeland and Stewart rightfully pointing out that the details right now look a lot more like an episode of Melrose Place.

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December 09, 2009 ABC NIGHTLINE

Text messages are the new lipstick on the collar, the mislaid credit card bill. Instantaneous and seemingly casual, they can be confirmation of a clandestine affair, a record of the not-so-discreet who sometimes forget that everything digital leaves a footprint.

This became painfully obvious a week ago when a woman who claims to have had an affair with Tiger Woods told a celebrity publication that he had sent her flirty text messages, some of which were published. It follows on the heels of politicians who ran afoul of text I.Q., including a former Detroit mayor who went to prison after his steamy text messages to an aide were revealed, and Senator John Ensign of Nevada, whose affair with a former employee was confirmed by an incriminating text message. From the New York Times

November 23, 2009 ABC NIGHTLINE

Part 1

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Part 2

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In the "Nightline" interview, Hampton provides astonishing new details about the affair and its many repercussions, including the end of a close 20-year friendship between the two families and the loss of the Hamptons' jobs.

"Lost my job. Lost my best friend. Nearly lost my wife," he said on the ripple effect of Ensign's affair.

Hampton makes allegations of hypocrisy, hubris -- cover-ups and maybe even crimes -- that have destroyed lives and could destroy Ensign's political career.

"It's hard to comprehend what's still taking place, what's going on this moment, with regards to the unraveling of the choices and the decisions that John's made," Hampton said.

Hampton said he's finally speaking out because he wants Ensign held accountable.

"I think there are missing pieces to what's been reported," he said. "Important for people to understand what the senator has done. ... The truth needs to come out."

Ensign Once the Rising GOP Star

Ensign was a rising star in the Republican Party. During his second term, there were already rumblings that the junior senator from Nevada might be the party's next best hope for president.

Ensign was an attractive candidate: good-looking, from a wealthy Las Vegas family, with impeccable conservative credentials. "Born again" in college, Ensign was a loud and leading voice for lawmakers adhering to strict Christian family values. He argued passionately for the Federal Marriage Amendment and publicly condemned President Clinton during the Monica Lewinsky scandal and Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, when he was accused of propositioning another man in a public restroom.

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Rachel Maddow reports on the latest news to come out of the C-Street House. It appears that Tom Coburn, despite previous denials, was allowed by John Ensign to basically negotiate his bribes for him. So much for those "family values".

MCCONNELL: I really don`t have any observations to make about the Ensign matter. Senator Ensign continues to serve. He`s a member of the finance committee, been active in the discussions here.

I don`t think today is a day to make any observations about the matter. It just appeared in the newspaper today. I don`t have any observations to make about the Ensign matter today. At the risk of being redundant, I really don`t have anything to add about the newspaper article that was in the "New York Times" today.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MADDOW: That`s the top Republican in the United States Senate. Mitch McConnell today pointedly and refusing to say anything supportive whatsoever about Nevada Senator John Ensign. His political fortunes have gone from dismal to humiliating, to him now being on resignation watch because of an adulterous affair so dramatically mishandled it may ultimately land the senator in prison.

But the dramatic new revelations in the blockbuster 4,000-word expose published on the front page of "The New York Times" today have also ensnared another Republican senator whose self-proclaimed integrity and piety have also been dragged down into the gutter with John Ensign. The second senator has been caught on tape lying to reporters about something he now admits -- lying about the fact that he ended up being the financial broker who tried to get Senator Ensign a cheaper payoff rate for his mistress.

It`s Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma. He`s an evangelical. He`s an ordained deacon and he lived with Senator Ensign at the C Street house in Washington, a house that`s maintained as living quarters for conservative Christian members of Congress by a secretive religious group that`s called the Family. We discussed the Family a lot on this show.

The Family actually lists on the C Street property as a church for tax purposes. And it was at that church, C Street, where Senator Tom Coburn learned that his housemate, John Ensign, was having an extramarital affair. And it was there that Senator Coburn made the extraordinary decision to try to help John Ensign contain the damage from that affair with cash.

According to an interview that Senator Coburn himself gave the "New York Times," while Ensign was still sleeping with his mistress, Coburn became Ensign`s negotiator, his financial negotiator. A lawyer hired by the mistress` husband wanted a cash payout to the mistress and her family as compensation for the harm caused by the affair.

Senator Coburn personally negotiated the financial deal, trying to get Ensign the best possible price for his sins.

What you`re looking at here is the first proposed cash settlement. This is what the family of John Ensign`s mistress wanted Ensign to pay as compensation for messing up their family and costing both the mistress and her husband their jobs since they were both employed by Senator Ensign. The cash demand was $8.5 million. That was presented to the upright and pious Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma who acted as Ensign`s negotiator in the deal. Coburn`s reaction to that proposed settlement was: no way.

We don`t know if he has experience negotiating senator`s payoff rates for their extramarital affairs, or if he just thought that he could get his friend in this case a better deal. But according to "The Times," the mistress` family lawyer, quote, "gave Mr. Coburn a figure, just under $8.5 million. Mr. Coburn dismissed that as ridiculous. The mistress` husband came back with a lower number, about $2 million, which Mr. Coburn passed on to Senator Ensign."

It`s really a heck of a news flash for the people of Oklahoma if you think about it. People of Oklahoma, your U.S. senator, the deacon, the anti-abortion, anti-gay, holier-than-thou senator who went so far as to demand that "Schindler`s List" not be shown on television because it contained nudity, Senator Tom Coburn has been spending his time in Washington brokering cheaper payoff rates for senators to their mistresses. And he`s been lying about it.

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August 26, 2009 BBC America

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Rachel reports on the lastest information on the John Ensign affair from the Las Vegas Sun: Emails between Ensign NRSC lieutenants, Hamptons show affair was known inside organization more than a year ago. Those emails can be read here and here.

Now, who is responsible for the Republican Party‘s fiasco in the Senate in the 2008 election? Who was in charge of the Republican Party‘s efforts to hold on to its seats in the Senate, efforts that failed so epically?

Hey, it was Sen. John Ensign of Nevada. He was in charge of the National Republican Senatorial Committee for 2007 and 2008. That‘s the campaign arm of the Republican Party responsible for the Senate.

While he was supposedly getting busy then overseeing the run-up to his party‘s 2008 shellacking in the Senate, you may recall he was also getting busy with one of his staffers, putting her son on the NRSC payroll, finding jobs for her husband, and asking his own parents to give financial gifts, lots of them, to his mistress‘s family. That‘s a lot to do while you‘re trying to get folks elected to the U.S. Senate. I wonder if he‘s a good multi-tasker.

Well, tonight there is new evidence that Sen. Ensign was not the only one at the National Republican Senatorial Committee who might have been distracted by his extramarital affair while preparing for that ill-fated election.

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Rachel reports on the latest shoe to drop in the C-Street House, John Ensign scandal.

Maddow: We now have news that just eight days after the public announcement of his own affair, Sen. Ensign gave a $5000 contribution to one of his C-Street housemates, Congressman Zach Wamp. Ensign's political action committee made the contribution on June 24th. Congressman Wamp's campaign committee accepted the contribution five days later on June 29th. So far Congressman Wamp has not returned the money. Zach Wamp of course is a conservative family values Republican. He is campaigning for governor in Tennessee in part on his enthusiasm for the sanctity of marriage.

Oh these wonderful family values Republicans. As Rachel notes, there are still no answers as to whether Rep. Wamp and the others living at C-Street had anything to do with Sen. Ensign getting his parents to funnel hush money to his mistress and her family, and the C-Street scandal is starting to catch up to all of the people involved as their local press starts to ask more questions.

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Another day, another Republican sex scandal at the C-Street House. Rachel Maddow reports that former Mississippi Congressman Chip Pickering's wife has filed a lawsuit against his mistress, Elizabeth Creekmore-Byrd for alienation of affection.

TPM has more-- Another C Street Vet Falls To An Extramarital Affair:

Former Congressman and C Street resident Chip Pickering's estranged wife has filed a lawsuit against Pickering's alleged mistress. Leisha Pickering is suing Elizabeth Creekmore-Byrd for alienation of affection.

Rep. Pickering, a Republican from Mississippi, allegedly continued seeing his college sweetheart while they were both married. According to the suit, some of the "wrongful conduct" occurred at the C Street facility for Christian congressmen -- the same one where Sen. John Ensign (R-NV) and Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) have lived, and where Gov. Mark Sanford (R-SC) has recently sought counseling.

Suit: Pickering Chose Mistress Over Senate Seat:

Former Rep. Chip Pickering (R-MS) and erstwhile C Street resident turned down Trent Lott's old Senate seat so he could be with his mistress, according to the lawsuit filed by his estranged wife this week.

The suit alleges that when Trent Lott resigned in 2007, Gov. Haley Barbour offered Rep. Pickering the seat. But the congressman turned it down after his girlfriend, Elizabeth Creekmore-Byrd, "insisted" that their relationship could not continue if he accepted the seat, as he would have to stay married for public appearances. She allegedly gave him an ultimatum, and he chose her.

[....]

Other gems from the suit, which Leisha Pickering filed against Creekmore-Byrd for alienation of affection:

Creekmore-Byrd is allegedly on the board of Telepak, her family's Internet company, which employs the lobbyist organization Capitol Resources. Pickering claims the mistress got her husband a job with the lobbyists. (A visit to the company's web site shows he does work in their Mississippi office.)

The suit alleges that Creekmore-Byrd aimed "to entice and tortuously interfere" with the Pickerings' marriage, with the help of seven unnamed defendants. It also says the alleged mistress's actions would "evoke outrage and disgust in civilized society."

Pickering alleges that Creekmore-Byrd showed up at a family ski vacation intending to cause a marriage-ending rift.

More of these wonderful family values hypocrite Republicans. At least this one is not in the Congress any more, unlike his fellow C-Street residents in the Senate, Ensign and Sanford.

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Rush Limbaugh makes his way into Ed Schultz's Psycho Talk segment for suggesting that President Obama made Mark Sanford cheat on his wife.