This is incredible. As has been reported, Sen. Tom Colburn knew of Sen Ensign’s affair. He was there during a confrontation between Ensign and the husband of the woman he was seeing.
Now Colburn says he won’t testify, whether called by a court or the Congressional ethics committee. The reason he gives is another example of the righteous right’s political bullshit.
Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) on Thursday said he would not testify in court or before the Ethics Committee about any advice he gave Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) on how to handle his affair with a former staffer, citing constitutional protections for communications during religious counseling, as well as the patient confidentiality privilege.
“I was counseling him as a physician and as an ordained deacon. … That is privileged communication that I will never reveal to anybody. Not to the Ethics Committee, not to a court of law, not to anybody,” Coburn said.
These guys who hide behind some flimsy religious facade is one reason many of us think of the religious right as a bunch of sleaze ball political opportunists who use religion to advance a dangerous, treasonous agenda. They are America’s equivalent of the Taliban.