Al Kamen in today’s Washington Post, commenting on the fallout from Senator John Ensign’s recent conduct:
bq. It is also unclear if there is going to be any action by the fearsome Senate ethics committee. A potentially key witness, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), is a close friend of Ensign’s and urged him to end the affair. But Coburn said last week he would ‘never’ testify before the committee or in court. He noted that he counseled Ensign ‘as a physician’ — Coburn is an obstetrician and gynecologist — and as an ‘ordained deacon,’ and therefore could not be compelled to testify because of doctor-patient privilege and religious privilege.
bq. That seems pretty conclusive to us — after all, if a guy can’t trust his OB-GYN, who can he trust? But some lawyers think neither assertion, though quite creative, would stand up in court. (There’s little chance at this point that the committee will haul Coburn in to testify, with or without soom goofy claim of privilege.)
bq. Even so, Coburn’s got other options, perhaps better ones, we were advised. He could hustle on out and get a law degree real quick, then claim retroactive attorney-client privilege — a recognized and formidable barrier to compelled testimony. To be absolutely bulletproof, however, he may want to marry Ensign — they’d have to travel to Iowa — and then rely on the ironclad spousal privilege.