Maybe DeLay is going for some kind of record

House Majority Leader Tom DeLay has been admonished by the House Ethics Committee for violating ethics rules four times in his career, including three reprimands just last year alone. Last week, we learned of a possible fifth, stemming from a trip DeLay took to England and Scotland that was apparently paid for by a crooked GOP lobbyist.

And, today, we learn of a possible sixth stemming from yet another foreign excursion.

A delegation of Republican House members including Majority Leader Tom DeLay accepted an expense-paid trip to South Korea in 2001 from a registered foreign agent despite House rules that bar the acceptance of travel expenses from foreign agents, according to government documents and travel reports filed by the House members.

Justice Department documents show that the Korea-U.S. Exchange Council, a business-financed entity created with help from a lobbying firm headed by DeLay’s former chief of staff, registered under the Foreign Agents Registration Act on Aug. 22, 2001. DeLay; his wife, Christine; and two other Republican lawmakers departed on a trip financed by the group on Aug. 25 of that year.

The exchange group in late 2003 hosted three Democratic House members and another Republican on a similar trip. It spent at least $106,921 to finance the three-day trip in 2001 from Washington to Seoul by the Republicans, which DeLay (Tex.) and accompanying staff assistants described at the time as having an “educational” purpose.

House rules on gifts and travel state that “a Member, officer or employee may not accept travel expenses from ‘a registered lobbyist or agent of a foreign principal.'”

Even a former general counsel for the Republican National Committee described this as “a problem” likely to trigger an investigation by the House Ethics Committee.

At this point, I wonder if DeLay’s office has their ethics lawyers on speed-dial.