Paul Kiel May 15, 2006, 3:13 PM

The Washington Post went front page today with Rep. Alan Mollohan’s (D-WV) ethical troubles, and boy, he doesn’t do himself one bit of good.

Mollohan’s troubles mostly stem from his habit of engaging in real estate deals with the beneficiaries of his many, many earmarks. He bought a farm, for instance, with an old friend soon after landing him an earmark. And he bought beachfront property with a woman who runs one of his nonprofits - a nonprofit which (you guessed it) relies on Mollohan’s earmarked largesse.

Well, gee, he says, I guess I should have thought twice about that:

In an interview, Mollohan said he is unapologetic and proud of the thousands of jobs he has brought to West Virginia [the earmarks] and that, legally speaking, everything he has done to secure them is “squeaky clean.” But he acknowledged that his actions might look incriminating and that he may have had an ethical “blind spot” that prevented him from questioning whether he, as a government official and vice chairman of the ethics panel, should have invested with such close associates.

“I would have done things differently,” he said as he drove through West Virginia’s northern panhandle. “It puts you in a position where people could say there’s something untoward going on.”

The House ethics committee warns lawmakers to avoid exactly those kinds of situations. Its Web site admonishes federal officials not to accept favors or benefits “in circumstances that might create the appearance of influencing the performance of official duties.”

You can just imagine the Post’s Jeffrey Birnbaum rolling his eyes as he wrote that last paragraph. “Blind spot?” Jeez.

And it looks like it’s going to continue to get worse for Mollohan before it gets better. The original complaint that kicked off the Mollohan investigation, from the conservative National Legal and Policy Center, alleged that he’d misreported his assets and debts on his disclosure form. No, no, no, said Mollohan. But now, according to the Post, Mollohan will be amending his disclosure filings to reflect misstatements. Unfortunately for Mollohan, that won’t make the problem go away - such a misstatement could still be charged as a crime.

Meanwhile, the investigation continues apace. One of Mollohan’s nonprofits was recently subpoenaed - and two more are likely to follow.

Oh, and one more thing. “Mollohan promises a report soon that will explain how he so quickly became a multimillionaire.” Can’t wait.

Alan Mollohan