ETHICAL LAPSES REVEALED

As it turns out approximately equal numbers of Democrats and Republicans have failed to report travel paid for by special interest groups:

Republican and Democratic House members were nearly equal rules violators in failing to disclose their personal trips within 30 days after the trip's completion. There were 23 GOP members, 19 Democrats and one independent, all of them months or years late in their reporting to the House public records office.

The tardiness record, however, goes to a Democrat who tried to divert attention to the Republicans:

Most of the previously undisclosed trips occurred in 2004, but some dated back to the late 1990s. House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md., recently disclosed 12 trips, the oldest dating back to 1997.

Stacey Bernards, a spokeswoman for Hoyer, said the office searched the files after the travel issue was raised initially by "Republicans doing opposition research to deflect from their own ethical issues."

It's the old if-they-hadn't-investigated-me-I-wouldn't-have-been-caught defence.