All Blog Posts from Political Hotsheet

Politics Today is CBSNews.com's inside look at the key stories driving the day in politics, written by CBS News Political Director Steve Chaggaris:

** Will the president's trip to Copenhagen pay off?...

** Obama meets face to face with McChrystal...

** The Senate Finance Committee finishes amending its health care bill...

2016 OLYMPICS: President Obama made his speech on behalf of Chicago's 2016 Summer Olympics bid in Copenhagen overnight and at 12:30pm ET, we'll know if he helped the Windy City's chances when the International Olympic Committee announces the two finalists, followed by the announcement of the winning city just before 1pm ET.

"President Obama described himself as a 'passionate supporter' of the Games and as 'a proud Chicagoan,'" reports Chicagobreakingnews.com.

"He said he looked forward to welcoming the world to the shores of Lake Michigan and America in 2016. 'America is ready and eager,' he said.

"He described his own association with and love for the city. ... He also referenced the Great Chicago Fire and how Chicago rose from its ashes and is a place 'where visionaries who make no small plans rebuilt ... and taught the world to reach new heights.'

"'It's not just the American dream that is the Olympic spirit; it's the essence of the Olympic spirit, and that's why we see so much of ourselves in these Games,' he said. 'That's why we want them in Chicago, that's why we want them in America.' He concluded by saying Chicago would make the IOC proud."

Read full post…

Republican Senator John Ensign told the Las Vegas Sun Monday that he will not resign following revelations of an affair with a former campaign staffer.

Furthermore, Ensign said that he plans to run for his Senate seat again in 2012.

"I fully plan on running for re-election,” Ensign told the Sun. "I’m going to work to earn their respect back."

Ensign says he has been getting support from people both in Washington and Nevada, and that people are encouraging him to stay in office. According to Ensign, supporters are telling him to "keep his head up" and assuring him that "this thing will pass."

When asked today if he would support Ensign's bid for re-election, USA Today reports, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell did not give a precise answer.

"I think Senator Ensign will have to speak to those issues himself. And you can ask him about it," McConnell told the newspaper.

According to a recent Mason-Dixon poll, Ensign has a 39 percent approval rating. Only 29 percent of Nevadans think he should resign, CNN reports.

Sen. John Ensign's political future got a little murkier this week as more details emerged about his extramarital affair – and other members of Congress were drawn into the ordeal.

Sen. Tom Coburn, a fellow conservative and confidant of Ensign's, affirmed to reporters Thursday that he knew about Ensign's affair and told him to end it. However, he denied allegations that he urged Ensign to pay off his mistress, Cindy Hampton, or her family.

"I categorically deny that," Coburn said when asked whether he had discussed with Ensign making payments to the Hamptons, the Tulsa World reports.

Coburn's statements came in response to accusations from Doug Hampton, Cindy's husband, in a televised interview with Jon Ralston of the Las Vegas Sun.

"This was at the request of Tom Coburn and some people to try and help them manage John," Doug Hampton said about the proposal to pay the family.

Read full post…

Politics Today is CBSNews.com's inside look at the key stories driving the day in Politics, written by CBS News Political Director Steve Chaggaris:

**President Obama wraps up G-8 meeting; meets with the Pope; heads to Ghana...

**Congress continues wrangling over health care legislation...

**Senate gears up for Sotomayor hearings...

**Burris to retire; another Ensign bombshell; latest on Palin...

PRESIDENT OBAMA: This morning, President Obama wrapped up the G-8 summit with a press conference before heading to the Vatican to meet with Pope Benedict XVI and then flying to Ghana. More on the press conference here.

Agence France-Press previews the president's first meeting with the Pope: "Barack Obama's meeting with Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican on Friday carries more weight than normal for the new US president, the White House said. ... Obama, a committed Christian, will have his first audience with the pope since becoming president shortly after the end of a three-day Group of Eight summit in the Italian town of L'Aquila. He will be accompanied by his wife Michelle.

"After taking office in January, Obama ended his predecessor George W. Bush's restrictions on government funding for embryonic stem cell research and for family planning groups that carry out or facilitate abortions overseas.

"'The fact however is that, given the influence of the Catholic Church globally as well as in the United States, and frankly given the influence of the Catholic Church and Church social teaching on the President himself, he recognises that this is much more than your typical state visit,' said [Deputy National Security Adviser Denis] McDonough. 'I do believe that it's fair to say that the President very much looks forward to this visit.'"

Bloomberg News' Lorraine Woellert, "Democrats Link Pope's 'Economic Justice' Plea With Obama Agenda"

Politics Daily's David Gibson, "Pope Benedict's Meeting with Obama a Setback for Conservative Catholics"

Earlier today, the president and the members of the G-8 met with the Outreach 5 (Egypt, Algeria, Senegal, Nigeria, Libya, Ethiopia). Mr. Obama then met unilaterally with South African President Jacob Zuma.

Read full post…

Sen. John Ensign's parents gave his mistress and her family nearly $100,000 in gifts, the senator's lawyer said Thursday.

The Nevada Republican's parents gave the gifts to Cindy Hampton, Doug Hampton and their two children in April 2008 after learning about the affair, Ensign's attorney Paul Coggins said in a statement.

The gifts came in the form of $12,000 checks from each parent to each member of the Hampton family, totaling $96,000 -- small enough amounts to make them exempt from IRS reporting requirements and exempt from gift taxes.

Coggins said in the statement the gifts were made "out of concern for the well-being of long-time family friends during a difficult time" and were "consistent with a pattern of generosity by the Ensign family to the Hamptons and others."

None of the gifts came from campaign or official funds, Coggins said, nor were they related to any campaign or official duties. He said Ensign has complied with all applicable laws and Senate ethics rules.

The statement was released after the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington today asked the Justice Department to investigate Ensign's payments to Hampton.

Read full post…

In a breakup letter to mistress Cynthia Hampton last February, Sen. John Ensign wrote that he "used you for my own pleasure" and "betrayed everything I believe in."

"God never intended us to do this," Ensign wrote in the handwritten letter, which was obtained by the Las Vegas Sun. "I walked away from Him + my relationship with Him has suffered terribly. I know He loves me + I know He loves you. He wants to restore [wife] Darlene + me + wants to restore Doug + you."

Ensign also said he "justified my actions because I blamed by wife."

The "Doug" referenced in the letter is Doug Hampton, who along with his wife Cynthia were staffers for the senator. The Sun reported Wednesday that Hampton said Ensign would not give up the affair even after intermediaries tried to get him to do so, among them Sen. Tom Coburn, a fellow conservative Republican.

Coburn's office released a statement that the senator "did everything he could to encourage Senator Ensign to end his affair and to persuade Senator Ensign to repair the damage he had caused to his own marriage and the Hampton’s marriage."

Read full post…

South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford may be off the hook with his Lieutenant Governor Andre Bauer, who says he will stand by Sanford for the remainder of the governor’s term. But the embattled Republican, who this week acknowledged an extramarital affair with an Argentine woman, is far from in the clear.

The Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) have filed a complaint against the governor claiming that he may have violated South Carolina law. The group is asking for an investigation by the South Carolina Attorney General and the State Ethics Committee into the use of state resources for Sanford’s trips to Argentina.

“The only sound decision Gov. Sanford appears to have made recently was to resign his post as chair of the Republican Governors Association,” CREW Executive Director Melanie Sloan said in a statement. “Why is the governor incapable of leading the RGA, but still fit to lead the state of South Carolina? Clearly, Gov. Sanford should resign, but whatever he does, it is incumbent upon South Carolina’s Attorney General and the State Ethics Commission to hold the governor accountable."

Read full post…

Two weeks ago, South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford and Nevada Sen. John Ensign were rising stars in the Republican Party, a pair of politicians believed to be contenders for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination.

Today – at least according to the conventional wisdom – those prospects, and quite possibly their political careers, have been diminished.

The reason, of course, is sex. Sanford's surreal disclosure of an affair with a woman from Argentina and Ensign's admission of an affair with a staffer were the latest headline fodder for a nation that has been fed a steady diet of political sex scandals in the past few years.

Here's a far-from-incomplete list of some other recent offenders: Bill Clinton. Rudy Giuliani. Jim McGreevey. Mark Foley. Newt Gingrich. Gavin Newsom. David Vitter. Larry Craig. Eliot Spitzer. John Edwards.

Some of these men (and you'll note they're all men) have survived their scandals. Clinton emerged bruised but not broken from his impeachment proceedings. Vitter looks likely to be reelected to the Senate despite being outed as a client of the D.C. Madam. Newsom, who as San Francisco mayor had an affair with a top aide, is gearing up for a run for California governor. Gingrich's 2007 admission of an extramarital affair in the 1990s was quickly all-but-forgotten.

And some did not. Spitzer resigned from the New York governorship in disgrace. Then-New Jersey governor McGreevey resigned as well, though he salvaged some respectability with his "gay American" speech. A scandal involving instant messages and male teenage pages ended Foley's career. Larry Craig managed to stick it out in the Senate after his arrest for lewd conduct in a men's airport restroom, but did not run for reelection.

A sex scandal, then, is not an automatic career ender. But it is also not something that can be simply shrugged off, as is the case in many countries in Europe and elsewhere. French President Nicolas Sarkozy's active personal life did not diminish his election prospects; Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is presently weathering a mini-storm over an alleged inappropriate relationship with a teenage girl, the sort of scandal that would have been almost impossible for an American politician to survive.

But what, exactly, is it that Americans really care about? Is it the sex? The unfaithfulness? The hypocrisy? Or something else?

Read full post…

Gov. Mark Sanford’s, R-S.C., tearful admission of an extramarital affair comes on the heels of Sen. John Ensign's, R-Nev., similar admission last week and is the second potential 2012 presidential candidate to announce such a revelation. As in the case of Ensign, it's safe to say that Sanford's future as a presidential candidate is all but over.

If there's a concern for the Republican Party, it's not that these admissions will have an effect on the various races that will take place this year and in next year's midterm elections. It's that they're losing some of their fresh faces as potential national voices.

Both the 49-year-old Sanford and the 51-year-old Ensign's admissions come at a time when the GOP is struggling to find the next generation of voices to combat a Democratic president and Congress.

Read full post…

Senator John Ensign apologized to the Republican senators today for his nine-month affair with a campaign staffer.

In a closed-door meeting, Ensign delivered what Tennessee Senator Bob Caucus said was "a heartfelt apology" to his colleagues, the Washington Post reports.

"He spoke at our conference, apologized and indicated that he was going to do his job," Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell told reporters, according to the Associated Press.

The Nevada senator's apology was accepted by his GOP colleagues.

"He apologized and we welcomed him back," Sen. Robert Bennett told reporters.

Ensign admitted to having an affair with Cynthia Hampton last week and soon after resigned from his leadership role on the Republican Policy Committee.

Although his colleagues have accepted his apology, Fox News’ Sean Hannity is calling on Ensign to resign from the senate.

In response to a claim that he is defending Ensign, Hannity said, "My answer is, if you’re going to be a family-values candidate and a family-values politician, and you don’t live up to that, I think you should resign," Think Progress reports.

The Post reports that Ensign, a social conservative who harshly criticized Bill Clinton and Larry Craig for their personal scandals, dodged the media and declined to comment today. Ensign is seen leaving the Republican meeting Tuesday.

Read full post…