Report: Senator says Ensign should resign “if allegations are true”

In a story this morning on Politico.com, Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, becomes the first senator to say that Sen. John Ensign should resign, "if it's true" that he paid off his mistress and her husband to leave his staff.

"If it is true that indeed he did make these payoffs and all that kind of stuff, then I would think the honorable thing would be to resign,"  Harkin said.

"It's not just because you might have had an affair with someone; that's not a reason to resign," Harkin said. "But it's the other things -- I said if it's true."

According to Politico.com, Harkin said he "doesn't like the smell" of a sex scandal that has "cast a bad image on the Senate."

In the piece, Politico.com also explores whether the Senate Ethics Committee might decide to hold a public forum on the Ensign scandal. 

Senate investigators reportedly are dissecting issues surrounding Ensign's nine month extramarital affair with campaign aide Cindy Hampton in 2007-2008, including the $96,000 check that the senator's parents made out to Cindy and husband Doug Hampton, Ensign's administrative assistant during that time, as they were leaving his employ in April 2008.  

The Justice Department also is investigating issues growing out of the affair.