Inquirer Editorial: Fitzpatrick's first-day follies

Fitzpatrick denies he was holding a fund-raiser in a setting where such events are barred, but his political campaign's invitation to the event solicited contributions.

Fitzpatrick and Rep. Pete Sessions (R., Texas) later tried to take the oath of office remotely by raising their hands while watching the proceedings over a television broadcast of House Speaker John Boehner swearing in their colleagues. How weak.

Worse, Fitzpatrick went back into the House and cast several votes. Those ballots later were declared null and void, since the representative wasn't yet officially a member of Congress.

With their excellent adventure, Fitzpatrick and Sessions earned the further dubious distinction of being perhaps the first members of this new Congress to be the subject of a call for an ethics inquiry. The watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington filed its complaint with the Office of Congressional Ethics, alleging "blatant violations of House rules, federal law, and the U.S. Constitution."

Representing a district that seesaws back and forth between Democratic and Republican control, Fitzpatrick has less than two years to live down this episode. Maybe that's why he's so focused on his reelection effort already.