Coburn: No Negotiation Over Ensign Affair
Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., told me flatly that he did not offer to broker a million-dollar deal between his Senate colleague, John Ensign, R-Nev., and the family of Ensign’s mistress.
Doug Hampton, the husband of a staffer with whom Ensign had an affair, makes the explosive allegation in an interview with "Nightline’s" Cynthia McFadden that will air on Monday.
Here’s what Hampton told McFadden:
HAMPTON: Tom Coburn said, "What I would do, Doug, if I were you, is I would have them buy your home, give you a million bucks so you can start over, and that is what I am willing to help you negotiate."
McFADDEN: And, what happened?
HAMPTON: John said: "No can do, not going to happen."
When I asked Coburn on This Week if Hampton is telling the truth, he said, “There was no negotiation,” but acknowledged that he had worked to “bring two families to a closure of a very painful episode.”
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Does the republican not understand that there is a government run insurance and it is called medicare and will anyone who has it will give it up.The answer is no.
We need the govenment to run this industry and not the private insurance companys to make profits.
Posted by: Rohini | November 22, 2009, 11:17 am 11:17 am
Doesn’t is seem that the number of social, political, and environmental fires that need to be put out are increasing? And that they are being increasingly difficult to extinguish. In my humble opinion this trend will continue until we realize that humanity has reached a point in our development where we are in need of a Prime Directive to plot our future course and to prescribe our current and future choices.
Every species of life has a Prime Directive built into its genetic code. Most forms of life follow their Prime Directive instinctively and without significant variation or deviance. The human animal is different. Humans have, in our minds, elevated ourselves above our fundamental nature, have imagined ourselves separate from the ecosystem of which we are a part and upon which we are mutually dependent, and we have forgotten the process, the importance, and the benefits of Creating Peaceful Space. Without a Prime Directive chaos is inevitable.
The Prime Directive is the foundational principle or mandate for our journey in the world. Without an umbrella directive that embraces all humankind our cultural traditions, religious ideologies, political philosophies, and racial and ethnic divisions will continue to breed conflict. Creating Peaceful Space is a natural progression of the Prime Directive.
THE PRIME DIRECTIVE
TO SEEK PLEASURE AND AVOID PAIN FOR YOURSELF AND OTHERS, TO TRANSFORM NEGATIVE ENERGY INTO POSITIVE ENERGY THROUGH YOUR CONDUCT IN THE WORLD, AND TO NURTURE LIFE AND STRUGGLE AGAINST DEATH FOR THE WELFARE OF THE PLANET AND THE COEXISTENCE OF ALL LIVING THINGS.
It could take generations for universal acceptance but it seems clear to me at unless we begin to move in that direction we face what for many is the unthinkable.
Posted by: The Quantum Sociologist | November 22, 2009, 11:42 am 11:42 am
Rohini,
So the government should run healthcare and lose billions of our tax dollars? You call medicare a success? Did you not pay your 13% of your paycheck to it this month?
Posted by: hunterandmax | November 22, 2009, 11:57 am 11:57 am
To measure How successful Medicare is ….try taking it away from your mother or grandmother! Case Closed….
Coburn should be a Goner….He Cannot work for the good of the country founded on negiotations,(while reaping GREAT benefits and Salary) but he Can negoitate a “sleazy” deal to Cover up his Friend’s (Ensign) ethics violation and freaking around with his friend’s wife. DID ANYONE EVER TELL THESE SLEAZE BALLS THAT YOU DON’T FREAK YOUR FRIEND’S SPOUSES? THEN THE PEA-BRAINS HAD HIS PARENTS TO PAY!!!! LITTLE BOYS IN MEN SIZE SHOES…PLAYING SELF-SERVE AT YOUR EXPENSE. Case Closed!
Posted by: sara | November 22, 2009, 12:41 pm 12:41 pm
Sounds like a negotiation to me, George, but why quibble over semantics.
ps. you’re off my Sunday viewing list after presenting Liz Cheney as “commentator” following historic health care vote.
Posted by: DLander | November 22, 2009, 1:04 pm 1:04 pm
Rohini said “Does the republican not understand that there is a government run insurance and it is called medicare and will anyone who has it will give it up.The answer is no.
We need the govenment to run this industry and not the private insurance companys to make profits.”
Medicare is run by the Government, full of mismanagement and a great example of why NOT to let the government mess up more of the health care industry. If you like places where a government mismanages more of an economy then move to Russia.
Posted by: Jon Samuel | November 22, 2009, 1:08 pm 1:08 pm
13% of wages to Medicare. Wow…righties can’t do arithmetic…surprised?
Posted by: emmazon | November 22, 2009, 1:09 pm 1:09 pm
Coburn doesn’t like the word “negotiation” because he thinks in sound bites. But he clearly did negotiate—-Negotiate: to confer with another or others in order to come to terms or reach an agreement. Coburn and others at C street were up to their ears in the cover up mess of a United States Senator. But it’s OK because they did it in the name of Jesus. Jesus wept.
Posted by: karela | November 22, 2009, 1:22 pm 1:22 pm
Colburn is saying that he didn’t make that specific suggestion to the injured husband, not that he didn’t help “negotiate” a settlement.
WHY Sen. Colburn would even bother trying to negogiate a settlement is the question.
Is he trying to be a pastor?
Oh, I know there will be those who will say he’s just trying to be a good neighbor. But I say, “Get the heck out of the way of a runaway train.” Nothing good can come of it, Tom.
Posted by: Tell the Truth | November 22, 2009, 1:40 pm 1:40 pm
Couburn is a fraud. HIs involvement with the C-street house where those right-wing religious fanatics live and worship is truly offensive. Giving him any air time is wrong. Those members of the C-street house, known as the family, are Americas version of the Taliban. They are a cult that has invaded the highest powers of our government and hell bent on tearing down the separation of Church and state. Frightening stuff. Read the book “The Family” by Jeff Sharlet
I just don’t get this crap about govt. run health care being bad. Look what the private companies have done? They have destroyed our total health care system and have made health insurance almost unaffordable. I’ll take Medicare anyday. So will all the senior and the people in the early sixties who can’t wait to sign up.
Posted by: Ken | November 22, 2009, 1:53 pm 1:53 pm
Senator Coburn is not someone whose word I would take as to the time. Why in the world would anyone believe he will admit to his role in the Ensign business. Anyone who did anything to assist Sen Ensign cover up his folly has no credibility with me.
Posted by: Gayle Leslie | November 22, 2009, 1:53 pm 1:53 pm
So the party of ‘NO’ is against insurance reform, thing is,
THEY GET GOVERNMENT PAID HEALTH CARE AND THEIR PARENTS ARE ON MEDICARE, BUT THEY SAY YOU AND I DO NOT DESERVE WHAT THEY HAVE!
HYPOCRITES AS USUAL
Posted by: AndreaD | November 22, 2009, 2:05 pm 2:05 pm
Your Sunday show is now on my no-watch list. Liz Cheney has been given a platform one too many times.
She’s had taxpayer subsidized health care for her entire life, yet is against a public option for the rest of us.
Thousands of Americans die because they can’t afford insurance or they have been denied coverage for preexisting conditions and you feature the truth challenged, bomb throwing Cheney.
Please, what does she contribute to this issue?
Posted by: joan grim | November 22, 2009, 2:47 pm 2:47 pm
Coached by his lawyers as to the methodical answers he must use on these impending questions and inevitable legal accusations; he still came across as a liar. Surprise.
Posted by: Anthony Look | November 22, 2009, 3:25 pm 3:25 pm
I can’t watch anymore because of the credibility you give Liz Cheney. She’s a lobbyist! and not interested in anything other than securing her father’s false legacy of success. He was an abject failure since the 70′s and for you to give her ANY airtime is incredulous. I’m starting to think that you’re in the bag with the Cons.
Posted by: Seen Robinson | November 22, 2009, 4:18 pm 4:18 pm
menteur et hypocrite
Posted by: pierre denerome | November 22, 2009, 4:23 pm 4:23 pm
George…
Love your show…but if I see Liz Cheney or Michele Malkin on it ever again…well, the “off button” will be “ON” permanently during your syndicated time slot.
Otherwise…great show.
P.S.: Sen. Colburn is probably a lying weasel…
Posted by: donaldinks | November 22, 2009, 5:21 pm 5:21 pm
Watching Coburn try to wessle out of the truth is a darn shame. Love these so called christens lie through their teeth. You give Liz Cheney the platform all the time. You fall for the bull she spews but you yourself know she isn’t being truthful. Your Sunday show has lost my following being the bull you let republicans tell constantly like Liz Cheney. Why are you media people so scared of the Cheney’s?
Posted by: sharon | November 22, 2009, 5:51 pm 5:51 pm
I’m sick to death of that poser Liz Cheney. She’s a nobody and has nothing to contribute to any conversation except “my daddy kept us safe and Obama is weak.”
If I see her or Malkin on your show ever again it goes off my viewing list forever. I know you can’t & shouldn’t have people on who constantly agree with you or each other, but when someone spews crap, you could at least earn your pay and call them on it. Show some backbone, man.
Posted by: Pam Swanger | November 22, 2009, 7:24 pm 7:24 pm
This not all that complex. Coburn was serving as Ensign’s emmissary to arrange a hush money payoff to keep Ensign’s sexual dalliances a secret. I’m sure Coburn would like to call it something else but it is what it is..
Posted by: John | November 22, 2009, 8:08 pm 8:08 pm
Jon Samuel,
If you do not like government, move to Somalia. American government will take care of its people. If you do not like it you are free to move to Somalia.
Posted by: logical thinker | November 22, 2009, 10:15 pm 10:15 pm
Tom Coburn and Liz Cheney give me severe heartburn. Tom said this healthcare bill would allow the government to come between the doctor and the patient. He knows he’s lying. All the Medicare Managed Care or some call Medicare Advantage patients he saw he had to have their permission and approval for certain medications as well as any other procedures he wishes to perform. Besides, it’s not like he had a big practice anyway. He’s a small town doctor. Tom is a weasel and he knows he tried to broker a deal.
Posted by: Lois | November 22, 2009, 10:43 pm 10:43 pm
Cheney knows more than all of you combined and you hate when she is right. As for Coburn, heck, he probably did negotiate with that guy, but I’d be a little more concerned about the payoff, I mean negotiation, of 300mm some scum Senator just stole from all of us for her “yes” vote on the health care debacle bill.
Posted by: chris | November 22, 2009, 10:44 pm 10:44 pm
Coburn admits there was a “negotiation”, but not for “a million dollars.”. Oh, that makes everything fine. Sen. Coburn is likely guilty of a conspiracy to obstruct justice. Where is the U.S. Attorney’s office?
Posted by: B. Bear | November 22, 2009, 11:40 pm 11:40 pm
I would say the funniest part of this whole episode is the connection between Ensign and Coburn. While in Washington they both stay in this “Christian Living” home run by the religious right.
They are roomates or live next door or something. I find this hilarious. That is why he was negotiating….they live next door to each other.
Ensign would have otherwise probably been the strongest GOP Presidential candidate in 2012. Now he has no chance.
Posted by: Jaxson | November 23, 2009, 1:54 am 1:54 am
LIAR!!!!!! Or should I say….”YOU LIE”
Posted by: sara | November 23, 2009, 7:01 am 7:01 am
logical thinker, you want socialism then you leave, we capitalists were here first and did a fine job until libs like LBJ learned how to buy the idiot vote.
Posted by: bob | November 23, 2009, 8:03 am 8:03 am
Senator John Edwards? Jessie Jackson? Bill Clinton? Elliott Spitzer? it’s ont he Democrat side also…..but if you’re a Dem the media loves you….
Posted by: Peter King | November 23, 2009, 11:38 am 11:38 am
The Ivanwald gang hard at work to take care of each other.
Posted by: Citizen X | November 23, 2009, 1:02 pm 1:02 pm
Regardless what Coburn claims, both he and Ensign belong to a secretive Christian political society known as the “Family”. Members think that God’s will works through them as an “invisible hand” to promote their version of free market ideology.
According to Jeff Sharlet’s book about the “Family”, these men believe the wealthy and powerful can be absolved of evil actions by “getting right with God”. And it’s all justified because they “dispense blessings to those underneath them”.
Family activities goes beyond covering up sex scandals. “Family” members are followers of a political religion that ignores democracy and works for power to “advance the Kingdom.”
These men say they’re working for Jesus, but the “Family” acts like the most powerful lobby in America that isn’t registered as a lobby. Lawmakers under the Family’s religio-political counsel include Governor Mark Sanford, Senators Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Jim DeMint and Lindsey Graham, both R-S.C.; James Inhofe, R-Okla., John Thune, R-S.D., and recent senators and high officials such as John Ashcroft, Ed Meese, Pete Domenici and Don Nickles. Over in the House there’s Joe Pitts, R-Penn., Frank Wolf, R-Va., Zach Wamp, R-Tenn., Robert Aderholt, R-Ala., Ander Crenshaw, R-Fla., Todd Tiahrt, R-Kan., Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., Jo Ann Emerson, R-Mo., and John R. Carter, R-Texas. And it’s not only Republicans – time to DEMAND strict lobby reform.
Posted by: green.goddess | November 23, 2009, 1:10 pm 1:10 pm
These two are members of the “FAMILY,” that has as one of it’s founding principles which states that MEMBERSHIP is NOT Optional, that each were selected by GOD, that their is NOTHING that could have intervened to have stopped them from being there.
Pretty heady stuff, the kind of nonsense that can elevate one’s view of themselves considerably, very scary people.
In psychiatry it would be defined as a form of delusional psychosis.
Posted by: Zach | November 29, 2009, 1:58 pm 1:58 pm
Hey Lois, You’re a FoxNEWS Watcher! hahaha
Posted by: Zach | November 29, 2009, 2:13 pm 2:13 pm