How inept was the Bush White House that with all their warrantless wiretapping, they never picked up on the ever-growing group of married, Republican politicians having extra-political affairs? They knew nothing about John Ensign's involvement with Cindy Hampton, who'd been the Nevada senator's bookkeeper, until her husband, his former chief of staff, went public with the story.
It's no surprise that the recent report, compiled by five inspector generals, questions how much valuable intelligence the wiretapping program has yielded. If the eavesdropping didn't pick up on local transgressions right there in Washington, how could it conceivably have been effective in the "war against terror?"
Conservative Christian lawmakers are said to have created a safe harbor in an apartment building known as the "Prayer House." Would it not have been more fitting to name their highly charged testosterone frat house "Animal House?" I suspect they've had to tweak the prayer books to conform to their lifestyles, and that in their version of the 23rd Psalm, they excised, "Lead us not into temptation."
Cindy and Doug Hampton both lost their jobs, but received $96,000 as "severance pay" from the senator's parents. Doug, who might have been an asset to the wiretapping squad, is now employed by a Las Vegas airline, where he has the apt title, "vice president of government affairs."