Heller’s criticism of Ensign keeps on coming

Embattled U.S. Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., might be kicking off a reconciliation tour, but he also seems to have landed an interesting new critic who could be a future political rival.

Ensign, who's fighting for his career after revealing he had an affair with an employee, an employee whom his parents later paid $96,000 in cash to her and her family, is back in Nevada apologizing to constituents and trying to shift the focus to issues, such as health care.

"Right now the biggest issue Nevadans and the rest of the country face is health care," Ensign told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

Not so fast, says Rep. Dean Heller, R-Nev.

Around the same time Ensign was trying to shift the focus from his affair to health care during a talk to business leaders in Fernley, Heller was speaking with a different group of business leaders in Carson City.

"People want jobs. Health care is secondary if you don't have a job," Heller said, according to an article in the Nevada Appeal.

It's the second time in recent weeks Heller defied Ensign.

In an interview with Las Vegas TV talker Jon Ralston on Aug. 12, Heller said Ensign should come clean on the affair, the payments and any other scandal matters.

"I don't want to speculate, but until John talks, we haven't seen the end of it," Heller said on television.

Not only has Heller taken to critiquing Ensign's scandal management and policy agenda, he also recently declined an opportunity to run against U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., even though he was heavily recruited to do so by Republican party leaders in Washington, D.C.

That means Heller -- should he be re-elected to his seemingly safe seat in the House of Representatives next year -- would be coming to the end of another term at the same time as the suddenly-vulnerable Ensign.