Yesterday, CityBlog knocked U.S. Sen. John Ensign around for his past use of arcane Senate rules, (alleged) secret holds and poison-pill amendments to block legislation that would force senators to file campaign finance reports electronically.

Since 2003, Wisconsin Democrat Sen. Russ Feingold has submitted bill after bill to try and drag his calcified colleagues into the modern age. He’s repeatedly introduced bills that would bring Senate financial disclosure in line with similar requirements governing that of representatives and presidential candidates, only to have them scuttled by others.

Critics say these delays in financial reporting waste both time and hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars to convert Senate paper campaign reports into electronic format – a process that’s never complete until long after Election Day.

Early this morning, Ensign aide Tory Mazzola directed us to quotes he had previously given to The Hill.

According to the piece, “‘The Democrats probably have enough votes now to pass e-filing, a measure Sen. Ensign has long supported,’” spokesman Tory Mazzola told The Hill in an e-mail. “They can do so without adding transparency to our partisan and broken ethics process.’

Adding that transparency, Mazzola wrote, ‘was Sen. Ensign’s goal since the beginning.’”