MORE FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF HIGH MORAL STANDARDS

He denounced NBC’s broadcast of Schindler’s List as “an all-time low, with full-frontal nudity.” He has warned of “rampant” lesbianism in Oklahoma public high school bathrooms. And he has battled to discredit condom use. Elected to the Senate in 2004 after serving eight years in the House of Representatives, he has demonstrated an uncanny ability to transform zealous and occasionally very weird moral crusades into headlines.

Who is he? He is Congressman Coburn, the "roomie" of John Ensign, who sat quietly bye on his high horse while his roommate and colleague had an adulterous affair with the wife of his top staffer. He is the man who knew about Ensign’s affair for 16 months and maintained his silence so it would not become public.

“Our culture that too often glorifies promiscuous sex without consequences should not be surprised by this scandal,” Congressman Coburn declared at the height of impeachment proceedings targeting President Bill Clinton for lying about his affair with Monica Lewinsky. “The tragic consequences of the president's behavior should prompt us to reassert the high moral standards that form the foundation of our freedom.”

In October 2007, when Senator Larry Craig (R-ID) announced he would finish his term after pleading guilty to soliciting sex with an undercover cop in a bathroom stall, Coburn joined Ensign and a number of other Republican senators in calling for Craig’s immediate resignation. “He ought to keep his word,” Coburn rumbled. Now, with Ensign is at the center of an embarrassing sex scandal, Coburn has affected an unusually tolerant tone. His transformation from anti-sex crusader to adultery enabler has been overnight.

Coburn: "If you look at it in the light of everybody makes errors, at least he fessed up and resolved the problem with his family, so I think it speaks well of his corrective force." Trouble was his "corrective forces" did not come into play until he heard that the husband of the woman he had an affair with was speaking with various news sources about the affair, and was about to explode onto the national media scene. Their are unconfirmed reports Mr. Hampton was asking for money from the Senator as well.

Ensign spokesman Tory Mazzola claimed that Doug Hampton, the husband of the woman Ensign had an affair with last year, tried to demand money from the senator before Ensign revealed the affair earlier this week. In a statement obtained by the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Mazzola wrote "Within the past month, Doug Hampton's legal counsel made exorbitant demands for cash and other financial benefits on behalf of his client." Mazzola went on to say the "outrageous demand was referred to Senator Ensign's legal counsel."

The woman with whom Ensign had the affair is Cindy Hampton, 46, a campaign treasurer for two committees connected to the senator. Her husband, Doug Hampton served as an administrative assistant on Ensign's Senate staff. Neither have worked for Ensign since May 2008. The senator acknowledged the affair continued until August 2008.

After leaving his post, Hampton, 47, quickly landed jobs with companies associated with the senator. He worked briefly for a consulting firm founded by Ensign's closest adviser, Mike Slanker. His biggest client was a Las Vegas-based airline whose executives have contributed generously to Ensign over the years.

Allegiant Air chief executive Maurice Gallagher and his wife have contributed more than $86,000 to Ensign's campaign and political action committees, federal records show. Hampton later joined Allegiant Air in August 2008 and is currently vice president of government affairs, a company spokeswoman said. Mazzola said Thursday that the senator made calls recommending Hampton for work after he left the Senate office.

Interesting timing. He calls off the affair in August, the same time Mr. Hampton gets a high paying cushy job with one of the Senators top financial supporters. So much for conservative values, and high moral standards they so vehemently demand of others. I am so sick of the political deviates speaking one thing, and doing another, I could puke. Bill O'Reilly and his deviate phone calls. Rush Limbaugh and his drug addiction. Larry Craig and his gay BS in a public bathroom stall (denied to this very day "I am not gay...I have never been gay"). Now these two eggheads and their freaky-dicky apartment o'sin.

Isn't it time these public figures come down from their high horses and soften their stances a mite? Just once I would like someone to come clean to the public and tell them it is none of their business. I think the perfect opportunity would have been with President Clinton, who opted out, preferring to lie under oath about the Lewinsky affair (outstanding choice, Mr. Prez). At least I can take solace in the fact that Clinton never would have dared to claim he was of high moral character like these two jarheads. And so it goes......