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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.

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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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Update: Michael Duvall has resigned. h/t commenter vorhese.

I've said for years that most politicians are in bed with lobbyists, but in the case of California Republican Michael Duvall, he's actually getting his freak on with one. Duvall gets the Jesse Jackson treatment, getting caught with an open microphone, bragging about making love and spanking his much younger mistress:

"And we had made love Wednesday. A lot."

"So I am getting into spanking her...yeah, I like it."

"I like spanking her. She goes, I know you like spanking me."

This bit of gotcha journalism wouldn't interest me much, but for the fact that Duvall considers himself to be one of those family values Republicans -- who just happens to be having kinky sex outside of his marriage.

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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.

Take a look at this hilarious bit of Republican erotica from Andy Cobb -- "Love Means Never Having to Say You're Resigning." Governor Mark Sanford truly is the gift that keeps on giving.

Open thread below....

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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.

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MSNBC's irony alert button is broken. For some reason the producers of Morning Joe thought anyone should care what Rudy Giuliani thinks about Mark Sanford's marital problems. And they managed to make it through the entire segment while completely ignoring Giuliani's own affairs. Imagine that.

From Media Matters, doing an excellent job as usual. Just how in the hell does the President of the United States have any responsibility for an affair that's been going on for how long?

I would imagine propagandist Limbaugh can relate to Sanford somewhat though, given his need to have a little tension relieved himself in the Dominican Republic. Limbaugh isn't doing the GOP any favors with his rhetoric. He's making the hypocrisy issue somewhat akin to shooting fish in a barrel if keeps this up.

Ever since John McCain apparently ran out of 'get out of gaffe free' cards and was actually held to account for having more homes than he could keep track of, it has this blogger wondering if the traditional media might finally be ready to fairly report the facts and not the myths about our candidates. If so, CNN's dual "Revealed" episodes on both candidates the other night was a fair start in that direction. Besides actually asking McCain about his role in the Keating 5 scandal, they also confronted him about his multiple extramarital affairs. Watch it:

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John Cole ties the affair, McCain's housing crisis, and what has been the media's Orwellian framing of elitism in this campaign all together and sums it up neatly:

Just so we are clear- visiting your grandmother while vacationing in Hawaii, the state where you were you were born- elitist.

Meeting the millionaire heiress daughter (who you will soon begin an affair with and divorce your first wife and then go on and buy a ton of houses) in Hawaii and then going on and honeymooning in Hawaii – not elitist.

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ABC News:

John Edwards repeatedly lied during his Presidential campaign about an extramarital affair with a novice filmmaker, the former Senator admitted to ABC News today. 

In an interview for broadcast tonight on Nightline, Edwards told ABC News correspondent Bob Woodruff he did have an affair with 42-year old Rielle Hunter, but said that he did not love her.

Edwards also denied he was the father of Hunter's baby girl, Frances Quinn, although the one-time Democratic Presidential candidate said he has not taken a paternity test.

Edwards said he knew he was not the father based on timing of the baby's birth on February 27, 2008. He said his affair ended too soon for him to have been the father.

Update: John Amato: This is awful news. What would have happened if he had been the nominee? Go Obama! The media will never let up on this and if he doesn't come clean on everything as fast as he can, it will never be over. The tabloids will be digging into ditches trying to find as much dirt as possible. 

SusanG has a round up of opinions.

Atrios:

The public: Edwards was a f*&king idiot for running for president, and betrayed a lot of his supporters by doing so.

The private: everything else is between Edwards and his family. Not for the rest of us to figure out how this is supposed to affect their relationships and their marriage.

FDL:

But Edwards did play the family card quite heavily during his campaign, and if he'd gotten the nomination, the Democrats would be sunk right now and we'd be looking at four years of John McCain. So on that count, I'm profoundly grateful that he didn't get it. He was risking a lot for all of us by doing this stuff and running at the same time. It was incredibly stupid. What more can you say?

Maybe we'll get this kind of inquiry into the Vicki Iseman story?

Hullabaloo:

I realize that everybody gets excited about sex scandals. It's human nature. But it's important to keep in mind that John Edwards didn't even come close to winning the nomination and this is just another sleazy tabloid story with absolutely no serious significance other than the sickening spectacle of the prurient slavering of the mainstream media now that they have finally found their hook: it's because he lied to the press about his sex life. How could he???

(Lying to the press about the anthrax killers and WMD in Iraq, well, not a problem.)

Many people, especially in the press, jumped to defend McCain against the evil New York Times on that one and there has been no follow up. But considering how everyone is excusing the flogging of this Edwards story on the basis of the fact that he lied to the press, I'm not sure it's in the country's best interest not to ask McCain about this again and talk to the women herself. What if it comes out that it was true after he's president? Why surely the press will be as honor bound to obsess over it as they were about Clinton and now Edwards, right? It's not about the sex --- it's about the lying, remember?...read on