Fallout from Rep. Tom Feeney's relationship with Jack Abramoff continues to dog him. Yesterday's Daytona Beach News-Journal looked at how the Abramoff taint has negatively impacted Feeney who "had the aura of a rising star in party politics."  Not anymore.   CREW pegged Feeney as one of 20 the most corrupt members of Congress in our report Beyond DeLay.  As the News-Journal reports, Feeney is facing an FBI investigation -- and has established a legal defense fund:

Continued fallout from the investigation of lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who was convicted last year of bribing members of congress, casts a shadow over Feeney, whose district includes part of Volusia County. Feeney traveled to Scotland in 2003 with Abramoff to play golf at the Old Course at St. Andrews.

"It's sort of like a Los Angeles smog, it's settled in and it won't go away," said Aubrey Jewett, a University of Central Florida political science professor.

Jewett worked in Feeney's office on sabbatical during the year the trip took place, but recalls no conversation about the golf trip.

Neither Feeney nor his representatives have commented to reporters from The Daytona Beach News-Journal since the newspaper reported accusations that Feeney used his position as Florida House speaker to gain privileges for a computer firm he represented. A Florida House ethics panel cleared Feeney of the charges in 2002. This report relies on comments from Feeney and his supporters in other published accounts.

He originally said the National Center for Public Policy Research, a conservative think tank, paid for the Scotland trip. Feeney later claimed he was misled, after revelations that Abramoff pressured Indian tribes for donations, which he used to entertain lawmakers with golf trips, sporting events and expensive meals.

A House ethics panel determined Feeney's trip violated congressional rules. Feeney agreed to pay $5,743 to the U.S. Treasury.

Feeney insisted he never helped Abramoff, but an April news report showed he was among several lawmakers who wrote to the Energy Department in March 2003 opposing changes to a federal program that were also being fought by a client of Abramoff.

FBI officials asked Feeney for information about his dealings with Abramoff, according to the April story in the St. Petersburg Times.

Feeney raised eyebrows in June when he established a legal defense fund to pay costs relating to an ongoing Justice Department investigation into his ties with Abramoff. The Justice Department did not return a call for comment.

"It looks like he needs one (legal defense fund)," said Naomi Seligman Steiner, deputy director for the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, which has put Feeney on its "most corrupt" list of congressmen two years running. "He seems to have some legal issues to contend with, certainly some ethical issues."