Ensign and Angle: Is the Love Affair Over?

Ensign tells Alan Stock Angle’s wrong on CityCenter, calling banks

The love story between Sharron Angle and John Ensign has had its ups and downs.

The, er, affair got off to a rocky start. “If your wife can’t trust you, how can I trust you?” Angle asked of Ensign, now facing down an indictment stemming from the investigation of his affair with campaign staffer who was married to the chief of staff in his Senate office, and a subsequent $96,000 payoff from Ensign’s family to the couple.

But then, a few short months later, things were on again, when Ensign escorted Angle during her Washington coming out party. Remember when he ran interference for her with the DC press corps?

Whether it was the warm welcome to Washington or the $5,000 donation from Ensign’s PAC, Angle was singing a different tune last week, when she lied to Nevada Newsmakers’ Sam Shad, saying she’d never judged Ensign’s behavior in the past. (Never mind the previous lovers’ quarrel over Ensign’s trustworthiness.)

But now that Ensign’s hitting the radio to disagree with Angle, will there once again be trouble in paradise? Listen to the audio here.

Yesterday, Ensign told Alan Stock that making phone calls to save the CityCenter project when it was nearing bankruptcy – and saving 22,000 jobs – as Sen. Reid did was the right thing to do. Angle has said she wouldn’t have made the calls, wouldn’t have saved the jobs. And she likened keeping 22,000 people at work to “shuffling the deck chairs on the Titanic.”

“The CityCenter, I thought, was an important project because it was under construction. I thought it was important to do what we could. All I was trying to do was make sure the banks were doing the right thing,” Ensign said. “We may disagree on this particular point. And I’m sure Sharron disagrees with some of my viewpoints.”

Sure – like whether you can trust a man whose wife can’t trust him.

Then Ensign rolled out the old Ronald Reagan chestnut about cozying up to anyone who agrees with you four times out of five. They’re your friend, not your enemy. Angle used the same line while talking about her, well, evolving position on Ensign’s legal troubles during her appearance on Newsmakers last week. But with Angle and Ensign disagreeing on two out of two, will the romance last?

Political columnist Jon Ralston’s not so sure. “I wonder what else is in that 20 percent they disagree on. Social Security? Maybe. Government is not God? Doubtful,” he writes. “Having an affair and then using the parents as a conduit to pay off the mistress' family and then engaging in a cover-up and trying to get the husband a job, with allegations of quid pro quos? Probably.”

“Angle can’t seem to make up her mind on John Ensign, even though Nevadans and the Department of Justice clearly have,” said Phoebe Sweet, communications director for the Nevada State Democratic Party. “Another thing Nevadans are clear on is that they won’t stand for a senator who says it’s not her job to create jobs. Even John Ensign knows that’s just plain wrong.”