Scooter Libby was not the only Bush administration official to be indicted this month. In September, the White House's top procurement official, David Safavian, was arrested in connection to his ties to GOP superlobbyist Jack Abramoff; early this month, Safavian was indicted on the same basis. And now, as Josephine Hearn reports for The Hill, a key Republican Senator is taking the investigation into Abramoff's shady dealings directly into Bush's backyard.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) has called on the former No. 2 official at the Interior Department to testify before a Senate panel investigating lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his involvement with Indian gambling tribes.

The official, J. Steven Griles, who served as deputy interior secretary from 2001 to the beginning of this year, was involved in efforts to help two of Abramoff’s clients — the Louisiana Coushatta tribe and the Saginaw Chippewa tribe of Michigan — fend off casino proposals from rival tribes and may have done so while engaged in employment negotiations with Abramoff, recent news reports have said. Griles has said through spokespeople that he did not play a major role in endeavors to aid the tribes.

The development marks the first time McCain has taken direct aim at the administration during the Indian Affairs Committee’s year-and-a-half-long investigation of Abramoff, his associate Michael Scanlon and their efforts to extract more than $80 million in lobbying and public-relations fees from Indian tribes.

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Griles is expected to appear alongside Italia Federici at the hearing tomorrow. Federici, who was an aide to Interior Secretary Gale Norton during her 1996 Senate bid, reportedly served as a go-between linking Griles and Abramoff. Federici is president of the Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy, a group founded by Norton and anti-tax activist Grover Norquist.

As bad as the Libby indictment is for the administration, it's hard to envision the Republican Party, both in Congress and the White House, extricating itself and its members from Abramoff. Simply too many key Republican figures, from former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) to Senator Conrad Burns (R-MT) to activists like Norquist and Ralph Reed to administration officials like Safavian (and perhaps Griles), have had intimate contacts with Abramoff over the years to wiggle out of this one. If McCain is tenacious -- as every indication says he will be -- tomorrow's hearing could be very uncomfortable for the GOP.