NEVADA SENATOR John Ensign, a rising star in the Republican Party who had been tipped as a possible presidential candidate in 2012, has resigned from his leadership position in the US Senate after admitting to an affair with a campaign staffer.
Mr Ensign stepped down as chairman of the Republican policy committee, the fourth-ranking place in his party’s leadership, a day after he announced that he had a “consensual affair” between December 2007 and August 2008.
A born-again Christian conservative, Mr Ensign said he deeply regretted the affair with a woman news reports identified as the wife of one of his top Senate aides.
“I violated the vows of my marriage. It is the worst thing I have ever done in my life. If there was ever anything in my life that I could take back, this would be it,” the senator said.
“Our families were close. That closeness put me into situations which led to my inappropriate behaviour. We caused deep pain to both families and for that I am truly sorry.”
Mr Ensign said his wife of 21 years, Darlene, was standing by him and he planned to remain in the Senate. He declined to say why he decided to talk publicly about the affair amid reports that the woman’s husband had approached him with a demand for money.
In 1998 Mr Ensign called on former US president Bill Clinton to resign over his affair with Monica Lewinsky. In 2007, he was among the most prominent Republicans to call on Idaho senator Larry Craig to step down after his arrest for lewd behaviour in a men’s bathroom in an airport.
A member of the Christian men’s group, the Promise Keepers, Mr Ensign called in 2004 for a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. “Marriage is the cornerstone on which our society was founded,” he said.
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