Heller acknowledges the John Ensign effect

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Rep. Dean Heller has become the first high-ranking Nevada Republican to call on Sen. John Ensign to break his silence and answer remaining questions about his affair with a member of his staff.

“I don’t want to speculate, but until John talks, we haven’t seen the end of it,” Heller told Sun columnist Jon Ralston during an interview on “Face to Face With Jon Ralston,” which aired Wednesday and will again at 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. today.

Ensign faces investigations by the Federal Election Commission because of an undisclosed payment to Cynthia Hampton, with whom he had the affair, as well as a likely investigation by the Senate Select Committee on Ethics for possibly breaking Senate rules.

When Heller told Ralston the story would likely continue until Ensign speaks, Ralston asked, “And he should talk, shouldn’t he?”

Heller responded: “I think he should.”

Ensign in June admitted to the affair with Hampton, who had been his campaign treasurer and is married to Doug Hampton, who had been Ensign’s co-chief of staff.

The Hampton and Ensign families had been lifelong friends.

Last month Ensign acknowledged that his parents, who have made millions in the casino business, gave the Hampton family $96,000 as recompense for their trouble — a gift in keeping with a “pattern of generosity” toward the Hamptons, as John Ensign’s lawyer put it.

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2009/aug/13/heller-acknowledges-john-ensign-effect/