Nobody loves wagging their fingers at hypocrisy more than journalists, so D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty really should have seen this coming. In the last week, since the mayor finally disclosed that his family trips to Dubai and Beijing were both partially funded by the governments of those cities, Fenty’s been on the business end of a steady stream of lecturing by the local media. First Marc Fisher and Mike DeBonis tag-teamed Fenty on the $36,000 debacle at his appearance at Nathan’s on Friday, openly questioning whether the mayor’s appearance at a controversial tennis tournament in the UAE might have been quid pro quo for the paid trip. And today the Washington Post’s editorial board took the mayor to task for keeping the funding a secret: “Mr. Fenty promised to run a transparent administration. He heaped scorn on then-Mayor Anthony A. Williams for his extensive travels. But Mr. Williams, at least, didn’t conceal anything.”

Thus far, Fenty has refused to admit he did anything untoward by accepting the trips and not disclosing their funding, and has been unwilling to elaborate on what official business he might have conducted on the trips. But we have to wonder how many more lectures the mayor can stand before he finally caves, so we’ll pile on: Mayor Fenty, accepting these free trips was pretty boneheaded, but you might have been OK had you fully disclosed them and explained why you thought it was appropriate to accept the money. Now, you appear to have done something wrong no matter what the purpose of those trips really were. This isn’t going to go away, and the longer you keep pretending you have nothing to explain, the dirtier you look. Either tell us why you accepted this money, or repay it.