The Dallas Morning News has a much more in-depth scoop than anything I've yet seen on the probe of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's political action committee, though the Washington Post and the New York Times both run major pieces on the developing story. In tomorrow's issue of the Morning News, Michelle Mittelstadt writes a story entitled "Indictments of associates may turn up heat on DeLay" that predicts substantial consequences for the Representative (R-TX) shouls his associates not be fully exonerated. She leads with this:

The indictment of three associates of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay complicates the powerful Texan's political future and could breathe new life into a slow-moving ethics complaint against him, analysts said Tuesday.

The Sugar Land Republican is not named in the flurry of indictments returned by an Austin grand jury. Instead, the case focuses on three fund-raisers close to him and eight corporations that contributed to a political action committee he founded.

"This is not good news for DeLay," political analyst Norm Ornstein said.

There's more.

"Obviously it's critical for these individuals to be exonerated if DeLay ever is to be speaker of the House," said Larry Sabato, a University of Virginia political scientist. "The Republican caucus will never promote DeLay if this is hanging over his head. It will hurt him even in hanging onto his current position if these people are convicted."

It looks like the media might just be looking at this story, after all.