he tipped off john ensign. he tipped off his friend who had the sex scandal to let him know that he was about to be exposed. this exhaustive and damning report by the senate ethics committee into the ethics scandal around john ensign broke this down. "on june 15th, 2009, doug hampton forwarded a copy of the letter and e-mail to rick santorum and asked senator santorum for help with the matter. senator santorum forwarded mr. hampton's e-mail and letter to senator ensign at his g-mail address that evening at approximately 10:20 p.m. the very next day was when senator ensign realize he had to get out ahead of this. he held a press conference admitting to the affair and explaining he was going to try to hold on to his senate seat. so you may recall us on the show talking about rick santorum's role in the john ensign sex scandal last summer. because last summer mr. santorum was busy doing the rounds doling out his families value guy sex scandal advice to another politician. >> if i had done what congressman weiner h

it's former senator john ensign who went back to work as a veterinarian. >> remember john ensign? part of the reason nobody has any what is going do happen with nevada's caucuses, and that state's 28 delegates. his sex and ethics scandal is part of the reason the nevada republican party disintegrated over the past few years. mr. ensign admitted to his affair, section and ethics scandal for two years before he resigned in 2011. it's not like the republican party was evolving from a previous position of strength. in 2008 before the john ensign scandal broke, the nevada republican party was forced to cancel their annual state convention. they decided to can sell the convention and hold a conference call instead, nevada republicans citing a lack of interest. so they didn't hold it. a year later the john ensign scandal unfolded, the most prominent republican in the state except for the state's republican governor, who was at the time, also having his own scandal. nevada's governor jim gibbons left office in 2011, in the wake of allegations that among other things he too was engaged in

. >> i noticed earlier when they were milling about that there was a john ensign representative who made the trek and speaking with some of the officials are light and they were saying none of the candidates came this time around at that has mostly been because the hotel has been close and there isn't activity for them to compare it interesting that john huntsman representative would make the trek up here. >> jon huntsman, as you said, has made his campaign in new hampshire. he said and i whoa, they pick corn, in new hampshire they pick president's. i'm not sure that endear him to the people and i will but he said he wasn't paying any attention to that. he staked his run for the presidency on a strong finish here in new hampshire and a recent poll shows mitt romney head and he came out with two votes here. >> as we said before, we have picked the eventual republican nominee consistently since 1960. obviously here we have a tie between mitt romney and jon huntsman. this is probably going to bode well for the huntsman campaign picks >> you would think so. and our poll taken over the weeken

i think of things like leak information to john ensign when he was about to be pursued? >> absolutely, martin. this is how it works generally and specifically in this presidential primary process. all of these candidates have surged at times from obscurity in most cases and gotten the thorough vetting that in some cases led to a plateau or even a downward trend on their surge. rick santorum though he peaked at the perfect time going into iowa and finishing a very strong second in iowa and now being seen as a more credible candidate than perhaps for the many months proceeding this, but now comes the scrutiny. yes, there reporters who are brushing off old santorum files as we speak and looking through the things that are known, but there more recent activities that he has been involved in during the time of the private sector. they haven't gotten as thorough of a vetting. there is a lot out there and a lot of things we talked about and there will be some new reporting. it's the same with newt gingrich. >> what are have you got? >> we are looking at as you suggested how he

in nevada the republican party was destroyed by john ensign.arty ceased to exist. who took it over the ron paul people they stepped into the vacuum. mitt romney is already spending money there. mitt romney does not have to worry about the newt gingrich apparatus in nevada. he has to deny ron paul an outright victory. ron paul continues to go after delegate because he's going to use them for something. >> he has nothing he's going to use them for. >> just doing it for fun? he doesn't want a speech. >> legalize drugs and stop all wars. he's just a protest candidate. >> so what does he want, the platform to change? >> he wants attention. he wants his ideas thought about. he's getting that. he represents a significant slice of the american electorate that is interested in a third party. these people are not represented and will not be represented in any way by the republican nominee. they won't be represented by the democratic nominee. what they are interested is ult patly a third party that's viable. if you ran the third party it would get probabl