My colleague Jon Ralston knocked U.S. Sen. John Ensign recently for misattributing a quote. Here’s the background, excerpted from Roll Call’s snarky “Heard on the Hill” column:

And Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) took some knocks this week, too, including a big tsk-tsk from a Las Vegas Sun columnist for erroneously citing Winston Churchill as the source of the quote: “Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” Ensign invoked the great Churchill with that quote during stimulus debate Thursday.

But wait — that wise saying originated with Spanish philosopher George Santayana, who actually wrote that “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

Ensign spokesman Tory Mazzola insists that that’s just nitpicking because Churchill used the expression “all the time.”

Now, sure it might be easy to slam Ensign for not knowing the source of that quote. After all, everybody knows Santayana said that. Seriously, everybody. The Sparklett’s guy who delivers water to Ensign’s office knows that. So, yeah, slamming Ensign would be easy.

But let’s give the guy a break, shall we? He’s not used to all the media he’s been getting lately on his Please Forget My Humiliating Tenure as Head of the National Republican Senatorial Committee Where I Lost At Least Seven Seats Comeback tour 2009. That can get to a guy.

It’s like we once said about Ensign, a veterinarian: Being in the Senate isn’t about taking care of dogs. It’s about people.

Oh, wait, no, that wasn’t us that said it. It was U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, back in the day when he was running against Ensign instead of being his best friend forever, totally, FTW!

Forgive us, readers. It was an honest mistake. After all, we use that expression about Ensign, well, all the time.