Just recently, Republican Sen. John Ensign had this to say about an ethics investigation and the possibility that he would resign:

“If I was concerned about that, I would resign. That would make the most sense, because then it goes away.... Resigning would be admitting guilt, and I did not do the things that they're saying.”

But that was in March. On Thursday the junior senator from Nevada — who a few years ago strongly suggested that former Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) resign in the wake of his arrest in an airport bathroom sex scandal — announced that he would give up the office he had held for 11 years. This does not mean, Ensign explained in a statement, that he’s done anything wrong, at least as far as the law is concerned. 

“While I stand behind my firm belief that I have not violated any law, rule, or standard of conduct of the Senate, and I have fought to prove this publicly, I will not continue to subject my family, my constituents, or the Senate to any further rounds of investigation, depositions, drawn out proceedings, or especially public hearings," he said. "For my family and me, this continued personal cost is simply too great.” (Entire statement available on the jump.)

Ensign was referring to the efforts of the Senate Ethics Committee, which had named a special counsel to investigate whether Ensign violated ethics rules and federal law after his affair with Cynthia Hampton, the wife of Doug Hampton, who was then his top aide. Ensign's wealthy parents wrote the Hamptons a $96,000 check after they left his staff.

President Obama's Hawaiian birth certificate has not convinced nearly half of those who identify themselves as Republican that he was born in the United States.

A CBS News/New York Times poll released Thursday revealed that 45% of Republicans and 45% of "tea party" supporters agree with the 'birther' movement, and Donald Trump's claims, that Obama is hiding something by not revealing a different birth certificate than the one spread all around the Internet.

The results of the poll were garnered from a random sample of 1,224 adults across the nation in interviews conducted from April 15-20. Of the entire group, one-quarter said he was born in another country.

The poll came out on the same day that Trump, who has been on the forefront of the birther movement for months, complained to CNN that too many reporters begin their interviews with him about Obama's true nationality.

"You have to stop asking me about a birth certificate," Trump demanded.

The Ticket has been covering the controversy since it began in June of 2008.

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Note: Andrew Malcolm is on vacation.

-- Tony Pierce
twitter.com/busblog

Photo: President Barack Obama eats a green tea ice cream bar during his visit to the Great Buddha of Kamakura at the Kotoku-in Temple in Kamakura, Japan, Nov. 14, 2010. Credit: White House /Pete Souza

This post has been corrected, please see note below.

Mitt Romney, the former Massachussets governor who trails billionaire Donald Trump in visibility among would-be GOP presidential candidates, stepped out in the limelight Thursday to criticize President Obama about what he calls "mission muddle."

"It is apparent that our military is engaged in much more than enforcing a no-fly zone, Romney wrote in the National Review. "What we are watching in real time is another example of mission creep and mission muddle."

Romney, who has yet to officially announce his plans to run for the GOP nomination, quoted former United States U.N. Ambassador John Bolton, who earlier wrote in the Boston Herald that Obama could be headed into a Libyan quagmire.

Former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson, who once scaled Mt. Everest, spoke to a sparse crowd Thursday at the steps of the New Hampshire statehouse to announce another difficult journey: his desire to seek the Republican nomination for president.

"I'm going to spend a lot of time in New Hampshire, where you can go from obscurity to national prominence overnight with a good showing," Johnson, 58, a former two-term governor, said to dozens.

Johnson is a conservative with a libertarian bent, much like Texas Rep. Ron Paul, who ran unsuccessfully in the last presidential race. Both men favor the legalization of marijuana and oppose the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and runaway federal spending.

While Paul is affectionately known as "Dr. No" for his rigid stance to "never vote for legislation unless the proposed measure is expressly authorized by the Constitution," Johnson was equally tough as a governor, proudly vetoing 750 bills while in office, earning him the nickname "Governor Veto."

Is it really a protest song if the person you're heckling doesn't know you're complaining?

Members of the Fresh Juice Party apparently bought a table at $35,800 per ticket for a Democratic National Committee fundraiser in San Francisco where President Obama was speaking so they could sing a protest song in support of the U.S. Army private who allegedly gave the WikiLeaks website classified information.

While others were nibbling on scrambled organic Petaluma farmed eggs, chicken apple sausages, and organic fingerling potatoes, the table of 10 interrupted the president Thursday and broke into song (lyrics and video below) in support of Bradley Manning.

Unfortunately for the Fresh Juice chorus, their melody was so sweet that Obama congratulated them on their tone and complimented them for singing better than he sings. The group was escorted out of the fundraiser by the Secret Service.

In what has to be a dark day for birthers, it seems Donald Trump, their most popular champion, has tired of talking about President Obama's disputed birth certificate.

At the top of an interview with CNN on Thursday morning, the brash billionaire bristled when the host asked him about the topic that has been on the tip of the tongue for months.

"You have to stop asking me about a birth certificate," Trump told CNN’s "American Morning" hosts Kiran Chetry and Ali Velshi. "You've got to stop asking the questions."

Trump, who has led numerous GOP presidential polls due, largely, to his beating the birther drum, complained that the issue doesn't allow him to talk about other problems like the trade deficit.

“The problem is every time I go on a show — like as an example, this morning — the first question you asked me is about the birth certificate," Trump, who has has yet to announce his intention to run for president said. "I think my strength is jobs, the economy and protecting our nation from OPEC, China and the other countries that are ripping us off.”

Velshi fired back by offering the bestselling author of "The Art of the Deal" ... a deal.

"We'll stop asking you the questions when you stop saying that President Obama can't prove he is born in the United States," Velshi said.

Billionaire Donald Trump recently proclaimed he is the Democrats' worst nightmare, but it's hard to imagining someone more frightening than Charles Manson ending a 20-year silence to call you out.

The 76-year-old spoke recently to Spain's Vanity Fair magazine on the 40th anniversary of his conviction in the Sharon Tate and LaBianca murders.

President Barack Obama is "a slave of Wall Street," the diminutive cult leader said by telephone from Corcoran State Prison to journalist David Lopez.

"He doesn't realize what they are doing. They are playing with him," Manson said of Obama. The president recently was being petitioned by Manson's lawyer, Giovanni Di Stefano, to free the iconic killer, who has been incarcerated since 1969. That request was refused.

When he wasn't proclaiming how "bad" he is, Manson rambled about how people need to pay attention to the enviornment and global warming.

"Everyone's God, and if we don’t wake up to that, there’s going to be no weather because our polar caps are melting because we’re doing bad things to the atmosphere," Manson warned.

"If we don't change that as rapidly as I’m speaking to you now, if we don’t put the green back on the planet and put the trees back that we’ve butchered, if we don’t go to war against the problem...' he said before trailing off.

RELATED:

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Donald Trump says he's the Democrats' 'worst nightmare'

Note: Andrew Malcolm is on vacation

-- Tony Pierce
twitter.com/busblog

Photo: Charles Manson in his booking photo taken March 18, 2009. Credit: California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitations

President Obama was at the Facebook headquarters in Palo Alto, Calif., Wednesday to participate in a town hall meeting alongside the social media giant's CEO, Mark Zuckerberg.

Greeted with one sign that read "Is Trump from Uranus?" and another that said "Zuckerberg-Sheen 2012," Obama eventually made his way to the stage and was introduced by America's youngest billionaire.

"I’m kind of nervous," Zuckeberg, 26, said to an audience that included rapper MC Hammer, Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. "We have the president of the United States here."

The president continued with the light-hearted greetings by introducing himself.

"My name is Barack Obama and I'm the guy who got Mark to wear a jacket and tie," Obama teased, directing his attention to the young engineer who donned a sport coat over a dress shirt and blue tie, but kept it real with jeans and sneakers.

As the town hall (that was being streamed live over the social network) wrapped up, Zuckerberg presented Obama with a blue Facebook sweatshirt "if you want to dress like me."

Not everything was fun and games. The president had tough words for the Republicans and their plans for the hotly debated budget. To put it in Facebook vernacular, if the GOP budget was on the popular social network website, Obama would not click the "Like" button.

"The Republican budget put forward is fairly radical, but I would not call it courageous," Obama said. "You can call that bold; I would call it short-sighted."

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Photo: President Barack Obama smiles at Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg (R) during a town hall meeting April 20, 2011 at Facebook headquarters in Palo Alto, California. Credit: MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images

 Steve Wynn, the billionaire casino mogul, says that even though his business is doing better this year compared with last year, the White House is not telling the whole truth when it says the economy is improving.

"Baloney is being slung at the American people," Wynn complained.

"It's a very misleading thing that is happening," Wynn told Fox Business' Neil Cavuto Wednesday morning, explaining that the people who frequent his fancy resorts are able to adjust to the current economic climates easier than the middle class employees who work for him. "Everything is more expensive. So the living standard of the working people -- of the middle class of America -- is being materially deteriorating because of the fiscal policies of our government," Wynn said.

When asked by Cavuto if Wynn is reacting to the cool-down of the "the devil-may-care" ways of corporate culture or factors that pre-date the current administration, Wynn turned his attention to President Obama, specifically, and how he is presented by the media.

"You guys on television use the term 'disingenuous' when the president talks about -- says something that isn't true," Wynn said on the cable show.

"That's a fancy word for lying," Wynn said, which got a chuckle out of Cavuto.

Donald Trump is proving that running around to countless media outlets saying he is the Democrats' "worst nightmare" while banging the "birther" drum that President Obama isn't being fully truthful about his birth certificate pays off.

A new Pew Research poll released Wednesday shows the brash billionaire leading the pack of other possible 2012 Republican presidential candidates in regards to public perception. A poll conducted April 14-17 shows that 39% of Republicans have heard Trump's name mentioned more than any other candidate's.

Mitt Romney was the only other Republican who scored double digits in the poll with 12%. Strangely, it could have been all the birth certificate talk that Romney found himself involved in last week that may have stuck in the heads of those polled.

Romney, in an appearance on CNBC's "Kudlow Report" a week ago, distanced himself from Trump and the other birthers, who have questioned whether Obama was born in the U.S. "I think the citizenship test has been passed," Romney said. "There are real reasons to get this guy out of office," he added, "but his citizenship isn't the reason why."

Ron Paul found himself being questioned by "Hardball" host Chris Matthews on Tuesday about an issue that a certain New York billionaire loves to talk about: President Obama's much talked about birth certificate.

"Is there something to it, based on what you have heard?" Matthews fished. "Is there any question that our president isn’t legitimate?"

"From my viewpoint, obviously not, because I never bring it up," Paul, the Republican congressman from Texas replied. "So I'm going to leave it to talk show hosts and to Donald Trump, and let you guys argue it out."

Strangely that answer wasn't clear, or good enough for the veteran newsman. "No, no, but, no, be a -- no, be a little more -- no, this [answer] is a dodge," Matthews said. "Is there anything to it?"

"Not that I know of," Paul said.

Finally Matthews conceded: "You're not a birther, sir. Thank you. We have given you the stamp of approval. You're not a birther."

RELATED:

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Trump on Ron Paul: 'He has no chance of getting elected'

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Note: Andrew Malcolm is on vacation

-- Tony Pierce

Photo: Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) speaks in Sioux City, Iowa, in April 2011. Credit: Tim Hynds / Sioux City Journal

 

President Obama participated in a town hall meeting Tuesday at Northern Virginia Community College in Annandale, Va. He spoke on a variety of topics ranging from healthcare to gasoline prices, and taxes. He answered questions from students and teachers who were concerned about education costs and bickering on Capital Hill.

One of the long-standing features of The Ticket is providing transcripts of the President and other White House officials unadulterated from comment. 

Below are some snippets of the president's comments in Virginia today.