Hush Money 101
Why would you have your parents pay off your mistress?
By SARA K. SMITH
Updated 2:30 PM PST, Fri, Jul 10, 2009
Amid all the tittering about John Ensign being such a mama's boy that he let his parents give $96,000 worth of gifts to his mistress and her family, an important point has been overlooked. While it may be infantilizing, emasculating, and downright humiliating to ask your elderly parents to bail you out of a complicated extramarital situation, there is a practical explanation: it might be your best shot at keeping the mess quiet.
Senators have to file financial disclosure forms every year, and their finances fall under much closer public scrutiny that average citizens' -- especially if they plan on running for president, as was the rumor around Ensign. Better to have his parents -- whom his lawyer has said were just engaging in "a pattern of generosity" -- give the mistress and her family these gifts, as one family of private citizens to another. While nosy reporters might think to start digging in a senator's financial records, they can hardly subpeona the IRS to release ordinary people's tax records. (And even if they could, the $12,000-per-person gifts were just barely small enough to fly under the radar.)
Remember that other philandering John E., John Edwards, whose wealthy old friend Fred Baron paid to get the presidential candidate's mistress out of Chapel Hill? That was part of a pattern of generosity, too:
Dallas lawyer Fred Baron, who helped bankroll the former North Carolina senator's presidential run, told The Dallas Morning News that he paid for the woman, Rielle Hunter, to leave Chapel Hill, N.C., because she was being hounded by tabloids.Mr. Baron, who was chairman of the Democrat's campaign finance committee in 2004 and 2008, said Mr. Edwards didn't know about his aid to Ms. Hunter. Mr. Edwards confirmed that, saying repeatedly during a television interview that he knew nothing about the payments.
It's always wonderful to see a man's friends and family rallying around him in such an impressive show of support when his marriage hits a rough patch. But for both Ensign and Edwards, the generosity of their loved ones looks like an expedient, albeit slightly embarrassing, way to keep a secret under wraps for as long as possible.
Sara K. Smith, the "CPA to the Stars," writes for NBC and Wonkette.
Copyright NBC Local Media
First Published: Jul 10, 2009 1:37 PM PST
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