By Dan Sullivan
PoHo contributor

I love a good political scandal. There’s just something about the revelation that those we elect to office are regular human beings – susceptible to all the same temptations and lapses in judgment as the rest of us.

Naturally though, I prefer scandals that involve Democrats. The Blago scandal was one-in-a-million. And I think only the Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinsky scandal could top Gary Hart’s 1988 romp on a boat called “Monkey Business.”

It’s not so much fun to read about Republicans breaking their word and compromising their good morals. Especially rising stars such as South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford.

Sanford is exactly the kind of conservative that many Republicans have been hoping will take the reigns of the party. His political views are, in many ways, in line with those of the great Barry Goldwater. Not only did he single-handedly battle the Fed in an effort to stop Obama’s spendulus money from touching his state, but he’s against preemptive military actions, and he passes most of the conservative litmus tests – pro-life, etc. Essentially, he’s the sane version of Ron Paul.

But, as of now, it appears that dream is over for Sanford. Following his sudden and bizarre disappearance for several days from his post as governor, Sanford revealed that he had gone to Argentina to visit a woman with whom he admitted to having a year-long affair.

Even if he finishes out his term as governor, it will take considerable political skill for Sanford to make a sufficient recovery to have any real hope of running for president. Or anything else, for that matter.

That kind of skill is a rare gift bestowed only to guys like Rudy Giuliani and Newt Gingrich – guys who still manage to remain politically relevant despite the fact that they have more skeletons in their closets than a haunted house.

The Sanford story came on the heels of the somewhat less talked-about admission of Nevada Sen. John Ensign to having an affair with a campaign staffer.

Ensign, like Sanford, was considered a star of the Republican Party until news of the affair came about. Unlike Sanford, however, Ensign is a social conservative of the evangelical mold and staunch advocate for preserving the sanctity of traditional marriage. He helped lead the charge against Bill Clinton, calling for the former president’s resignation in the wake of the Lewinsky scandal. All this, of course, makes Ensign’s affair appear to be especially hypocritical.

I’m sure many of my liberal friends will be quick to pounce on both the Ensign and Sanford stories as the beginning of the end of the Republican Party. This is nonsense of course. If the Democrats can survive Eliot Spitzer and Rod Blaojevich, the Republicans can surely survive these goofballs.

I think it’s key to point out that Sanford and Ensign both had the good sense to admit their mistakes rather than lie about them. Granted, Sanford apparently did try to cover his tracks, coming up with assorted excuses having to do with the need to unwind from the pressures of being South Carolina’s chief executive. But still, he knew the jig was up and it was time to come clean.

That’s more than Bill Clinton can say about his own response to the Lewinsky affair – lying about his actions for months before weaseling his way out of a legal mess. And Blago, to this day, claims he’s innocent of the charges for which the Illinois legislature felt there was sufficient proof to have him impeached.

Sanford and Ensign both demonstrated bad judgment. But they admitted their errors. Even Eliot Spitzer, as bad as his sins were, admitted what he did and sought forgiveness. There is something to be said for the fact that these men appear to be genuinely remorseful. Blago and Clinton could take some notes.

“Answer me this question, because I am very much interested in trying to replace Obama. Okay?”

That is how U.S. Sen. Roland Burris opens the door to the idea of being appointed by Gov. Rod Blagojevich to the Senate seat left open by the election of Barack Obama. This comes during a taped conversation with Robert Blagojevich, the former gov’s brother and fundraising muscle. Robert Blagojevich, as you may recall from our coverage, is a University of Tampa graduate, and gave the commencement address there a few years back.

But then Burris goes on to say that since it is known that he wanted the appointment, that he couldn’t be raising money for Blago without it being seen as an attempt to buy the seat. Burris said, “Rob, I’m in a dilemma right now trying to help the governor. I’m now trying to figure out what the hell the best thing to do. I know I could give him a check, myself.”

Which he never did.

So, should Roland Burris be removed from the Senate on the basis of this conversation?

Listen to the audio in full after the jump:

Keep up with all the top political headlines in our News & Politics section front.

From the NYT:

Rod R. Blagojevich, this state’s ousted governor, was charged on Thursday with 16 felony counts, among them racketeering conspiracy, wire fraud and extortion conspiracy in a wide-ranging scheme to deprive residents of “honest government,” prosecutors said, including trying to leverage his authority to pick someone to fill President Obama’s former Senate seat.

Five of his closest advisers, including his brother, Robert, a top fundraiser, and two former chiefs of staff, were also charged in the 19-count indictment.

Prosecutors said Mr. Blagojevich used numerous elements of his state work – including appointing people to state boards, investing state money and signing legislation – as a way to seek money, campaign contributions and jobs for himself and others.

One of those indicted with Blago was his brother, Robert, a distinguished alum of the University of Tampa and a commencement speaker in recent years. Here’s my story on the Blago-Tampa connection from earlier this year.

It turns out that Blago’s family, a friend’s campaign money, his publicist and even the former governor himself all — at some point — spent time in the Cigar City. (Blago did a stretch at the University of Tampa in the 1970s. But more about that later.)

Robert Blagojevich, left, at the UT 2008 commencement. (University of Tampa)

The most recent Tampa-factoid in the Blago saga emerged in the past two weeks, as the Illinois Senate prepped for his impeachment trial and new tapes came out detailing various cell phone conversations by the governor and his associates. Blagojevich had quite a cast of characters surrounding him, including one named Betty Loren Maltese, who was once the mayor of Cicero, Ill., and is now in prison. ABC 7 in Chicago reported:

For more than two years, Maltese’ bulging campaign fund had invested millions of dollars through a company headquartered in Tampa, Florida, the firm Invest Financial Corporation. Its CEO at the time was Robert Blagojevich, the governor’s older brother.

State records show that between July of 2000 and September of 2002, Robert Blagojevich’s company paid Maltese’ campaign fund nearly $3.3 million. The dozens of entries are listed as investment dividends, interest and proceeds from the sale of U.S. Treasury bills.

Some of the investment payments from Robert Blagojevich’s company occurred even after Mayor Maltese was convicted of swindling $12 million from the town through an insurance firm.

Lawyer Michael Ettinger, who represents the governor’s brother in the current federal investigation, was unaware of the link to Betty Loren Maltese.

On Wednesday at the I-Team’s request, Ettinger had Robert Blagojevich review the state records and Blagojevich reported that “he knows nothing about it” and that the investments must have been made by some other affiliated bank even though his was listed 41 times.

Robert Blagojevich is no longer with Invest; he’s now a real estate investor in Nashville, Tenn. Robert found his cell phone calls wiretapped, as well, and ABC 7 said “Robert Blagojevich has been his ‘brother’s keeper’ since last August or at least the keeper of his brother’s multi-million dollar campaign fund, a political fund that Robert Blagojevich’s lawyer says is likely to be indicted before it’s all over.”

In Tampa, however, Robert Blagojevich is an honored alumnus from the University of Tampa, high-profile enough to earn a shot at giving the May 2008 commencement address. He told the graduating Class of 2008:

My years here were among the happiest and most formative of my life, to include meeting my wife and best friend Julie, in Western Civ. class freshman year. Plant Hall and the campus will always hold fond memories for both of us.

I graduated from this wonderful university 31 years ago, and to be honest with you, I don’t remember who our commencement speaker was or what he said. So I hold no illusions that you’re going to remember anything I say here today.

The 1977 history major, in fact, lured his brother to UT, where Rod spent two years in college before transferring to a more likely Northwestern. Oh, they were heady days, as the former Gov recounted in a Nov. 2003 profile in Chicago Magazine:

The University of Tampa was an odd college choice for a kid “from the neighborhood,” as Blagojevich puts it, but his brother had gone there two years before to play baseball. With a lackluster grade point average and an 18 or 19 on his ACT, Blagojevich admits, “schools like Northwestern, I couldn’t get into.” After two years, Rod got into Northwestern as a transfer student and majored in history.

And finally, one last Tampa connection: The publicist behind Blago’s recent bizzare (but highly entertaining) media blitz while his Senate trial was under way is Hillsborough County resident and former Fox 13 newsman Glenn Selig. Blago hired The Publicity Agency, Selig’s crisis communications firm that also represented frequent wife misplacer Drew Peterson:

“The governor has decided that he wants to speak and tell his side of the story, and he enlisted us to help,” Glenn Selig, the PR firm’s founder, said.

His side, as it turns out, didn’t play so well. The Illinois Senate voted 59-0 to remove Blago from office on Thursday, the first time in the state’s history a governor has been impeached and convicted and the first time in 20 years that a governor in the U.S. has been removed from office in that manner.