Senators Aid After Affair Raises Flags Over Ethics

In acknowledging the affair, Mr. Ensign cast it as a personal transgression, not a professional one. But an examination of his conduct shows that in trying to clean up the mess from the illicit relationship and distance himself from the Hamptons, he entangled political supporters, staff members and Senate colleagues, some of whom say they now feel he betrayed them.

He’s got a new documentary airing on HBO and there are new allegations of him having secret sex, this time with volunteers at his old mega-church.

I don’t know how anybody can take either Christians or Republicans seriously when they’re so flagrant in their hypocrisy.

Mildred Loving died this year. It was she and her husband whose Supreme Court case overturned state laws against mixed-race marriage: “The freedom to marry has long been recognized as one of the vital personal rights essential to the orderly pursuit of happiness by free men.”

Mrs. Loving was asked in 2007, the 40th anniversary of Loving v. Virginia, to lend her support to gay marriage.

On her own, she talked to her neighbors about the request; she talked to her children about it. And in the end, Loving told Etienne, yes, she would allow the group to read a statement in her name supporting gay marriage at the commemoration. “Are you sure you understand what you’re saying?” Etienne asked. “You understand that you’re putting your name behind the idea that two men or two women should have the right to marry each other?”

“I understand it,” Loving said, “and I believe it.”

Sometimes I need to be reminded that not all Christians are wicked.