LAS VEGAS AND WASHINGTON — For a rebuilding Republican Party that's struggled to counter a charismatic president, the made-for-TV visage of Sen. John Ensign of Nevada held great promise.
Bronze-skinned and silver-haired, he was promoted to a top Senate GOP leadership position. He made the cable news rounds, advocating fiscal discipline. A recent trip to Iowa, whose voters have launched many a presidency, led to speculation that he had designs on the White House.
This week, his national ambitions fizzled and his beleaguered party was nursing yet another headache.
A day after apologizing for an extramarital affair with a former campaign staff member, Ensign resigned Wednesday from his chairmanship of the Republican Policy Committee. Questions are swirling about what provoked his abrupt disclosure of a relationship that reportedly lasted from December 2007 to August 2008.
"I don't know who told him he could be president, but that's off the table," said David Damore, an associate professor of political science at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
If little else is revealed, Ensign will probably remain popular with Nevada's forgiving voters, who typically prize shrinking government and lowering taxes above all else. In 2006, they elected Republican Gov. Jim Gibbons, who was accused of trying to assault a cocktail waitress but painted his opponent as a big spender.
For the Republican Party, however, Ensign's admission is the equivalent of punching a reeling boxer in the gut. He was supposed to help lead the GOP back to viability after a string of sex and corruption scandals, a devastating 2008 election and the recent defection of moderate Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter to the Democrats.
"The announcement certainly tarnishes Sen. Ensign's image on the national stage . . . because infidelity almost inevitably implies a pattern of deception," said an editorial in the Las Vegas Review-Journal, which is usually sympathetic to Nevada's junior senator.
"If he's going to be a man who walks the walk, he should resign," said Chuck Muth, a conservative activist and blogger in Las Vegas.
More so in Washington than to Nevadans, Ensign had burnished his social conservative credentials.
A veterinarian and the adopted son of a casino mogul, he was involved with the Christian ministry Promise Keepers and has publicly railed against same-sex marriage. He called for President Clinton's resignation during the Monica Lewinsky scandal and chastised Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho), who pleaded guilty in connection with a 2007 airport bathroom sex sting.
