Ethics group urges president, lawmakers to boycott prayer breakfast

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AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais

President Barack Obama receives a kiss from first lady Michelle Obama after speaking at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, Thursday, Feb. 4, 2010. Spain’s Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, left, and Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn. applaud.

Thu, Feb 4, 2010 (11:11 a.m.)

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133 C Street S.E. is registered as a church and affiliated with a secretive Christian group known as The Family. It is the Washington home of several influential conservative politicians, including Sen. John Ensign of Nevada.

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John Ensign

An ethics group urged President Barack Obama and lawmakers not to attend today’s National Prayer Breakfast, the annual gathering organized by the group that runs the C Street Christian home where Republican Sen. John Ensign and other lawmakers have lived.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington said in a letter to the White House and congressional leaders that by attending, elected officials give legitimacy to The Fellowship Foundation a “shadowy religious organization … preaching an unconventional brand of Christianity focused on meeting Jesus ‘man-to-man.’”

The group has “been linked to an unusually high number of ethically troubled members of Congress,” CREW wrote, singling out Ensign's affair and Republican South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, who was recently censured by his state’s legislature for behavior during his own extramarital affair.

“For those who have been housed in or sought refuge at C Street, a shocking pattern of unethical behavior has emerged, sparking public outrage,” CREW wrote.

Ensign had lived at the C Street home for much of his congressional career, and it was there that Republican Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, a housemate, and others intervened to encourage the Nevadan to end his affair with Cynthia Hampton.

Hampton was the senator’s former campaign treasurer and her husband, Doug Hampton, was a longtime Ensign friend and one of the senator’s top aides at the time of the affair.

Ensign’s parents gave the Hamptons $96,000 as they ended their employment with the senator. Doug Hampton became a lobbyist and has said he lobbied Ensign’s office, in violation of the one-year cooling off period for former staffers, with Ensign’s approval.

Both the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Senate Ethics Committee are making preliminary inquiries about Ensign’s actions.

Ensign has been close to the organization, including traveling overseas with the group. He moved out of the C Street home last year.

The group, also known as The Family, keeps a low profile, grooming potential leaders and engaging in back-door diplomacy with foreign governments, including despots, according to author Jeff Sharlet, who infiltrated the organization for his recent book “The Family.”

The annual prayer breakfast has been a Washington mainstay since the Eisenhower administration, drawing presidents, world leaders and members of Congress to the morning event.

Obama addressed the group this morning. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid did not attend. Ensign’s office declined to comment.

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