As if he weren't facing mounting pressure from a possible House Ethics Committee probe and the indictment of several of his former employees who worked in a PAC he set up, it appears as though House Majority Leader Tom DeLay is in a bit of trouble once again. Unsurprisingly, the issue at hand regards possibly unethical contributions.

Susan Schmidt and Thomas Edsall write in tomorrow morning's issue of the Washington Post that the heat is being turned up on the Texas Republican. In "DeLay Criticized in Probe of Tribal Funds", they write thusly:

The investigation of powerful GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his business associate Michael Scanlon led to partisan sparring yesterday as a Senate committee prepared to begin a hearing today into the millions of dollars in lobbying and public relations fees the pair were paid by Indian tribes that operate gambling casinos.

Democrats contended that House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's ability to campaign for fellow Republicans has been damaged by news reports on the business dealings of Scanlon, a former spokesman for the Texas Republican, and Abramoff, and the indictment last week of three DeLay aides on charges of illegally raising political funds.

[...]

The Senate Indian Affairs Committee and a federal grand jury are investigating at least $50 million in lobbying and public relations fees Abramoff and Scanlon garnered from Indian tribes that operate gambling casinos. The FBI and a task force of five federal agencies are investigating campaign contributions the two men directed the tribes to make to members of Congress, and whether tribal funds were misused in the contracts the two men obtained or the fees they collected, government sources said.

It's been since 1994 when a sitting House Speaker has been ousted and I'm not sure when the last time a party's #2 Represented has been forced out of office; nevertheless, it's appearing that the more DeLay's associates are under investigation and the closer these investigations get to the Congressman, the more radioactive he becomes to his party. I'm definitely not saying that Democrat Richard Morrison has such a great shot at knocking off DeLay, but if (or possibly when) one of these charges sticks, DeLay and the Republicans are going to be in a really tight spot.