Sen. John Ensign: I Broke No Law, and I Won't Resign

Nevada Republican Sen. John Ensign, under increasing attack following his affair with a staffer, told CNN Tuesday he did not break Senate ethics rules by helping to secure a lobbying job for the woman's husband.

"I said in the past, I recommended him for jobs just like I've recommended a lot of people," Ensign told CNN. "But we absolutely did nothing except for comply exactly with what the ethics laws and the ethics rules of the Senate state. We were very careful in everything that we did."

Meanwhile, two Nevada talk show hosts have called for Ensign's resignation in the wake of the expanding probe into the affair, and Politico reports Ensign finds himself increasingly isolated, both personally and professionally.

While Ensign has admitted to the affair with his campaign treasurer, Cindy Hampton, it is his effort to obtain lucrative consulting and lobbying contracts for the husband of his former mistress that has put the senator in legal jeopardy.

The New York Times reported this week that Ensign rewarded the companies that agreed to hire Doug Hampton by intervening on their behalf with federal agencies. Now, full-scale investigations by the Justice Department and the Senate Ethics Committee are under way to determine if his activities were criminal and/or ethical violations.

Still, despite calls for his resignation, confirmation of the ongoing Senate and FBI investigations, and national Republican colleagues declining to come to his defense, Ensign continues to insist he has done nothing "legally wrong" and to refuse to discuss resignation. "I'm fully planning on working, staying in office," the embattled senator told the Las Vegas Sun Tuesday. While Nevada Democrats are relishing the prospect of a vacancy in the Senate, Republicans in the state have not broken ranks -- yet.