News broke this week that Mr. Feeney took two trips in violation of House rules. One, a golf junket to Scotland, was paid for by Jack Abramoff, a top lobbyist now under investigation for illegal influence peddling. The other, to South Korea, was sponsored by a group registered as a foreign agent.

House rules bar members of Congress from accepting trips or gifts from lobbyists or foreign agents. Mr. Feeney says he was "duped" by Mr. Abramoff, who told the congressman's staff that a think tank had picked up the tab for the Scotland trip. He says he didn't know the Korea-U.S. Exchange Council was a foreign agent. If these indeed were only careless mistakes, Mr. Feeney will welcome a full investigation from the House committee on ethics.

This is hardly the first time Mr. Feeney's actions have raised questions about his attention to ethics. As Florida House speaker, he registered to lobby the Orange County Commission, a role in which he could leverage his considerable clout as one of the state's top lawmakers. In Congress, he has been an outspoken apologist for House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, who has been admonished repeatedly by the House ethics panel.

Mr. Feeney has excuses for these and other ethically dubious actions, but the collective weight of them is becoming overwhelming. If he takes seriously his duty to represent his constituents, not lobbyists or other Capitol Hill kingmakers, he will do more in the future to avoid the stench of impropriety.