Although the news media have largely neglected the probe into the dealings of GOP superlobbyist Jack Abramoff for the past several months, that doesn't mean the prosecutors in the case have. And as Jonathan D. Salant reports for the Bloomberg news service, the probe continues to threaten some of the most major players in the Republican Party.

The widening investigation of lobbyist Jack Abramoff is moving beyond the confines of tawdry influence-peddling to threaten leading figures in the Republican hierarchy that dominates Washington.

This week's arrest of David Safavian, the former head of procurement at the Office of Management and Budget, in connection with a land deal involving Abramoff brings the probe to the White House for the first time.

Safavian once worked with Abramoff at one lobbying firm and was a partner of Grover Norquist, a national Republican strategist with close ties to the White House, at another. Safavian traveled to Scotland in 2002 with Abramoff, Representative Robert Ney of Ohio and another top Republican organizer, Ralph Reed, southeast regional head of President George W. Bush's 2004 re-election campaign.

House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, who once called Abramoff ``one of my closest and dearest friends,'' already figures prominently in the investigation of the lobbyist's links to Republicans. The probe may singe other lawmakers with ties to Abramoff, such as Republican Senator Conrad Burns of Montana, as well as Ney.

If anything should concern Republicans, it is the arc of the investigation. Instead of being resolved now or in the near future -- allowing campaign spinmeisters more than a year to try to change the focus of voters -- it appears that the case is just heating up now, with possibility remaining that something (be it an indictment or a slap on the wrist) occuring in the height of the campaign season.