There is so much packed into this lede:

WASHINGTON — Senator John Ensign sought financial backing for a troubled Nevada energy company in 2008, and at the same time he urged the company to hire his mistress’s husband, according to people involved in the matter. At the request of the company, P2SA Equity, Mr. Ensign had two senior aides contact one of the nation’s largest oil pipeline businesses, Kinder Morgan, about forming a partnership, two executives associated with the project said. Mr. Ensign’s dealings with P2SA are at the center of a federal criminal inquiry into his efforts to line up lobbying work for Doug Hampton, a former top aide whose wife had an affair with the senator.

Where does one start? What's the most striking thing about this story? The fact that John Ensign used his influence as Senator to try to find work for a former top aide? The fact that he had an affair with the wife of that aide, and was apparently trying to buy their silence, possibly in violation of both Senate ethics rules and criminal law? Or is it the fact that a guy who positions himself as a teabagging conservative sees no problem with throwing his political weight around as he meddles in the business affairs of private companies to help achieve his own personal goals?

It's hard to choose, isn't it? But the fact that Republicans don't have a problem with a guy like this says a lot. Whatever his personal problems might be, John Ensign is using government power to interfere in the financial affairs of private enterprise solely for the purpose of covering up a personal political scandal.

For all the GOP hot air about freedom and liberty and the free market, for all the teabaggers crying about tyranny, it sure does seem like every time someone in their own party uses government power for personal gain, they look the other way. And yet they still wonder why most Americans do not trust them to handle the nation's affairs. Go figure.