The Conservative Values police gets caught again! 

By MANU RAJU & ALEXANDER BURNS | 6/16/09 5:47 PM EDT

Updated: 6/16/09 8:26 PM EDT

Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) acknowledged Tuesday that he had “violated the vows” of marriage by having an affair with a campaign staffer.

The admission — made in a televised appearance in Las Vegas — shocked Ensign’s Senate colleagues and delivered a serious blow to any hopes he might have had of seeking the GOP presidential nomination in 2012.

Political insiders in the Senate and in Nevada told POLITICO that Ensign began the affair with the staffer several months after he separated from his wife, Darlene. When Ensign reconciled with his wife, the sources said, he gave the aide a severance package, and the two parted ways.

Some time later, a Nevada source said, Ensign met with the husband of the woman involved and had what this source described as a positive encounter. Sources said that the man subsequently asked Ensign for a substantial sum of money — at which point Ensign decided to make the affair public.

Ensign did not provide specifics about the affair Tuesday, nor did he identify the woman involved, except to say that she and her husband “were close friends, and both of them worked for me.”

“Last year, I had an affair,” Ensign said. “I violated the vows of my marriage. It is the worst thing I have ever done in my life. If there was ever anything in my life that I could take back, this would be it. I take full responsibility for my actions.”

Nevada Sen. John Ensign admits affair; sources say blackmail involved - Manu Raju and Alexander Burns - POLITICO.com