Maybe that’s the basis of his special function in the group, since he can try to claim a professional privilege.

“Paging symbologist Robert Langdon“

(let’s watch Tom Hanks analyze the skanky hanky-panky)

“The Family runs but does not own the C Street House. According to a  June 26th, 2009 Washington Post story, by Manuel Roig-Franzia, “The Political Enclave That Dare Not Speak Its Name: The Sanford and Ensign Scandals Open a Door On Previously Secretive ‘C Street’ Spiritual Haven”, the C Street House is owned by a “little-known organization called Youth With a Mission of Washington DC.”‘

[the article has more on Youth with a Mission–brrrrrrrr]

I noted before that I am skeptical that Ensign was ‘driven’ to the FedEx office because the FedEx office is a few doors away from C Street. Driving that short distance would be absurd. A niggling detail, I know. But it sounds wrong to me, which could alternatively mean that someone was making up the FedEx story altogether.

Then there’s Ensign’s parents. Why on earth did they get involved? Their charitable contribution to his mistress sounds like a cover story too. Maybe they’re lying because Ensign really did pay his mistress out of political funds, didn’t report it and realized he was in deep legal trouble. Or maybe keeping Ensign in his seat in the Senate would be helpful to his casino-mogul parents. Ensign’s parents FEC history shows a lot of $$ contributions to Ensign-related funds (and the NRSC when he was chair…)

But that’s why I don’t get about his “parents.” Ensign is adopted by his “dad” (Ensign’s mother remarried). Could his adoptive father love his son that much? To pay off the mistress… Or was there another financial motive at hand…

And then Coburn. He’s the only Senator placed smack in the middle of this… Why him? Did he care TOO much?

may be it will later; maybe not.

there definitely are some missing parts to the puzzle; the motives and the actions of the players are well connected.

where is the leader of the org (and his son) in all this?

why coburn?

why should he care?

does he have a mistress too?

who tasked him with the job of resolving the ensign infidelity?

why should he have a special role in all this?

why should ew assume the ensign defense (hampton’s after a payoff)?

could he just be royally pissed and seeking some revenge?

and how is it that hampton is a “cuckold” (an old word rarely used on the internet but repeatedly used with respect to this husband)

but jenny sanford is not?

Blame the Internal Revenue Code’s provisions on gift taxes, as explained here. The relevant portions, with emphasis [and a comment] added.

What can be excluded from gifts?
The general rule is that any gift is a taxable gift. However, there are many exceptions to this rule. Generally, the following gifts are not taxable gifts: 1.Gifts that are not more than the annual exclusion for the calendar year….

How many annual exclusions are available?
The annual exclusion applies to gifts to each donee. In other words, if you give each of your [son’s mistress’s] children $11,000 in 2002-2005, $12,000 in 2006-2008, and $13,000 on or after January 1, 2009, the annual exclusion applies to each gift.

What if my spouse and I want to give away property that we own together?
You are each entitled to the annual exclusion amount on the gift. Together, you can give $22,000 to each donee (2002-2005) or $24,000 (2006-2008), $26,000 (effective on or after January 1, 2009).

Making annual exclusion gifts to children and grandchildren is a tax-favored giving strategy that wealthy people, like Ensign’s parents, use to transfer assets to their descendants, free of all taxes. When the gift is made, the donor pays no gift tax; the donee pays no income tax; and when the donor dies, the gifted assets are beyond the reach of estate tax.

So usually, when a wealthy couple makes annual exclusion gifts to the children of the woman whom their son is screwing, it’s because the donee children are the couple’s grandchildren: fathered by their son, borne by their daughter-in-law. With the Ensigns, not so much.