A tense time for Mike Ensign

His son’s resignation from the U.S. Senate isn’t going to get former Mandalay Resort Group big shot Mike Ensign out of the hot seat. As yesterday’s New York Times, the Senate Ethics Committee may yet refer its findings to the Justice Department and those findings might very well be that the famous $96,000 concubine-payoff moolah “could represent an illegal campaign contribution by [Sen. John] Ensign’s parents.” That’d be a felony, folks, and would write finis to Ensign Senior’s attempts to get back into the gaming industry (and would dampen any hopes Junior has of landing a cushy sinecure with financial supporters Steve Wynn or Sheldon Adelson). Of course, returning to the casino biz is low on the Ensign family’s to-do list this weekend, well below “Stay out of jail.”