Things continue to heat up for Nevada Sen. John Ensign, a Republican who once chaired the party's Senatorial campaign committee and has since become ensnared in a scandal. Ensign has confessed to an affair with the wife of a longtime staffer, Doug Hampton, and is now reportedly being investigated by federal authorities over his efforts to secure Hampton a job after the affair had been revealed.

 Local news in Nevada says subpoenas are flying in the case, a development that could have ramifications back East.

 Mike Slanker, a widely respected and successful Republican campaign strategist, formerly worked for Ensign, including as his political director at the Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee. And as previous stories have detailed, Slanker and his wife were friends with both the Ensigns and the Hamptons. And Slanker helped Hampton after he left Ensign's staff, helping to get him lobbying work, apparently with Ensign's help.

 Slanker has not been publicly accused with wrongdoing in the Ensign case, and is now in the inner circle of Linda McMahon's campaign for the Senate in Connecticut. His firm, November Inc., has helped engineer the media offensive that vaulted McMahon into a lead in the most recent public polls.

 A campaign spokesman has continually refused to comment about the latest Ensign developments, and to say whether or not Slanker has been subpoenaed or interviewed by federal investigators in the matter. (The campaign did confirm last year that Slanker had been issued a subpoena for documents in the matter by the Senate Ethics Committee.) 

 The spokesman, Ed Patru, declined again Thursday to get an answer from Slanker about whether or not federal authorities have contacted him. Slanker and November Inc. remain on the job as the McMahon campaign rolls toward this summer's Republican convention.