The kind of story that should keep the House Ethics Committee awfully busy

Last week there were several reports about Tom DeLay’s 10-day England-Scotland excursion, which may have been paid for by a disgraced lobbyist, a definite no-no under congressional ethics guidelines. This week, we learn that DeLay wasn’t the only one enjoying the travel benefits.

A group of congressional figures has joined House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) under an ethics cloud stemming from foreign golf junkets arranged by a lobbyist facing influence-peddling investigations.

DeLay landed in trouble last month over a 2000 trip to Scotland with the lobbyist. But two other congressmen and three House aides also played St. Andrews on separate junkets with the lobbyist that may have violated House rules, records show.

And, like the Texas Republican, all omitted disclosing the key role of beleaguered lobbyist Jack Abramoff. He privately raised tens of thousands of dollars for private jets and boasted of setting up golf junkets, according to documents, congressional testimony and interviews.

Who all are we talking about? Rep. Robert W. Ney (R-Ohio), chairman of House Administration Committee, was a golf guest of Abramoff’s. Moreover, Ney said in congressional filings that his trip on a private jet was sponsored by the National Center for Public Policy Research, though that now appears to be untrue. In fact, the center’s president told the Los Angeles Times that it “did not sponsor, nor did we pay” for Ney’s travels.

Oops.

Better yet, Ney isn’t the only one.

Rep. Tom Feeney (R-Fla.) also enjoyed using Abramoff as an overly generous travel agent and also claimed the National Center for Public Policy Research paid for the golf trip. Yet, once again, the Center insists it did not provide “a single dime” for the Feeney junket.

So, just to be abundantly clear, we not only have lawmakers violating House ethics by accepting travel gifts from a lobbyist, but we also have another angle with a paper trail: lawmakers filed false official documents with Congress to disguise gifts from a lobbyist.

Ney, in particular, looks poised for a very embarrassing future.

At the time of his Scotland trip in 2002, for example, Ney was attempting to amend a bill to aid an Abramoff tribal client in Texas.

Ney came to Abramoff’s aid two years earlier on another case. He took to the House floor to castigate the owner of a Florida-based gambling cruise ship company that Abramoff was trying to purchase.

There’s also the Tiguas, a Texas tribe hit hard when the state closed its casino, who were then ripped off by Abramoff.

As chairman of the House Administration Committee, Ney was in a position to help the Tigua tribe.

Abramoff told tribal leaders that the congressman could attach language concerning their shuttered casino to an unrelated election reform bill. Ney was the bill’s author, and as committee chairman would be part of the House-Senate conference committee determining its final language.

Six days after Abramoff said Ney agreed, the lobbyist asked the tribe to send three checks to the congressman’s political committees. Checks totaling $32,000 were sent. Two months later, Abramoff asked the Tiguas to pay for half of Ney’s golf junket to Scotland. Another tribal client would pay the rest, he said.

This is a scandal with nothing but potential. It’s starting to generate some headlines in the print press, but if the networks miss this one, they’ll be guilty of malpractice.