SOME ENCHANTED EVENING

I should say something serious in response to the big New York Times story about John Ensign's sleazy efforts to build up a lobbying business for ex-aide Douglas Hampton in the wake of Ensign's affair with Hampton's wife -- but I find myself fixated on one detail in the story:

At a black-tie Christmas party at the White House in 2006, Mr. Ensign and Ms. Hampton beamed as they posed for a picture with President George W. Bush and his wife, Laura. It was that night that he realized that his feelings toward Ms. Hampton had become romantic....

Are we supposed to read this as cause and effect?

Eeeeeuuuuuuw.