So once upon a time, there was a senator.

And this senator was from a rich and very well-connected family.

He was a real smooth talker.

He was handsome-ish.

Kind of, depends on your taste.

He was very ambitious, even for a senator.

I should mention that he wasn't all that successful as a senator in political

terms. For example, he had this leadership job in the 2008 election where he was responsible

for all the Republican Senate campaigns that year. That election year, under his leadership,

Republicans lost eight seats in the Senate, which is a lot.

So maybe not the best record, but still, you know, he had been in leadership and he thought very highly of his own prospects in politics.

Right after presiding over that huge loss in the Senate for his party, he went right to Iowa, started giving speeches in Iowa, because he very clearly was planning

on a presidential run of his own. So this guy is from money. He's got a good head of hair. He was

youngish for a senator. He was telegenic-ish, very confident, very ambitious. And he was also stooping one of his own

employees. And that poor decision started a cascade of terrible and increasingly amazing decisions

and ultimately consequences for him and his career.

So this senator, John Ensign, he is sleeping with a woman who works for him in the Senate.

John Ensign himself is married. He's publicly a very pious man who is all about family values.

He has called on other people to resign when they have had affairs. But he's having an affair.

He is married while he is having the sexual relationship with a woman who works for him. The woman he's having the relationship

with, she is also married. And because the senator, John Ensign, was a lot of things, but super

strategic was maybe not one of them. This employee, this female employee, he decided to have

...