Justice DeLayed

People tend to think of this story as the DeLay crew finally getting caught with their hands in the cookie jar. And some of the immediate causes of Jack Abramoff's troubles were some Indian elections that went bad for him. But there's another part to this story that will be important to keep an eye on.

There are many theories about who's leaking on who in generating all these revelations about Abramoff and his associates. But it's clear that a big factor in all of this -- a big factor in generating a lot of these stories -- is a division between different groups of ex-DeLay aides -- particularly, the one surrounding Abramoff (the one that has everyone rushing for the exits, if they can find an open door) and that around Ed Buckham.

I hear Abramoff has already tried to do that, and been rebuffed. And this gets us into questions I think we'll be talking about a lot.

Why would he be rebuffed?

Decisions like that go right to the top. And since Abramoff's shenanigans are closely tied -- to be generous -- not just to members of Congress (DeLay, Ney, Burns, et al.) but to key GOP power players (Norquist, Reed, et al.) and quite probably Karl Rove himself, you can see why he (i.e., Abramoff) might have a harder time than your usual perp cutting a deal to implicate those above him.

That DC grand jury investigation of Abramoff can't go on forever. Eventually the lawyers at the Public Integrity Section will go to their bosses with some decisions about just who they want to indict. That's when Al Gonzales will have to show his cards.

For those of you trying to come up to speed on the DeLay/Abramoff story, here's our quick run-down on six of the top cronies in the mix.

Those bits are from Josh Marshall, where you can keep up with all the twists and turns (and twits) involved in the slimey world of Tom DeLay, coming unhinged.

Note on Abramoff's indictment.