By Yael T. Abouhalkah, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist

As the GOP trumpets its moral authority with Americans on health care, Sen. John Ensign's problems are weighing Republicans down big-time.

In fact, Ensign has become a downright embarrassment for the GOP.

Now it appears both the Senate Ethics Committee and the Justice Department will probe whether Ensign violated the law in trying to conceal the affair he had with the wife of an aide.

Ensign reportedly helped a former top aide, Douglas Hampton, with lobbying the Nevada Republican's office after Hampton quit.

Hampton was supposed to obey a one-year ban on lobbying. But The New York Times reported this week that that didn't happen -- and that Ensign knew about it.

A defiant Ensign has refused to comment much on the allegations.

But the problems weigh down on Ensign -- and the GOP -- especially because he is one of the key senate voices handling health care reform.