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Speculation is that someone formerly close to Delay has "rolled over" to prosecutor Earle, and will provide credible testimony against Delay to a jury.
Jack Abramoff is Delay's potential source for federal indictments and more scenarios of testimony from indicted former associates, against him.
Delay's former press secretary, Mike Scanlon, is under investigation with Abramoff, over the $66 million lobbying fees collected from Indian Tribes.

IMO, Delay's nickname is certainly fitting. He is however, an "outsider" among a group of intimates....the people really "in charge", who seem to be the "college republicans", of the late 70's to early 80's. I read that Roy Blunt, Delay's successor, was Ashcroft's chauffeur, during his '72 campaign for congress. Delay was an enforcer for Rove and Norquist, and he became the target of "sleaze" charges, and his relationship with Jack Abramoff helped keep the media spotlight off Bush and Rove. Norquist was Abramoff's campaign manager when he ran for and won presidency of College Republicans in 1980, and then successfully organized the vote for Reagan.

Rove and Norquist have much stronger and longer personal ties to Abramoff than Delay does, but it seems to me that Delay will be fingered when Abramoff rolls over completely for federal prosecutors. Delay was a Houston exterminator who rose way out of his league. He funneled over $500,000 to his own family members, and personally enjoyed the now highly publicized trips that Abramoff paid for. There are several investigative pieces from the AJC, <a href="http://www.tfproject.org/tfp/showthread.php?t=95107">here,</a> that provide background on Abramoff's "lobbying" and the money that it generated, and the involvement of Norquist and Ralph Reed in money skimming and laundering.

Abramoff's "job" was to sell the political influence of Delay, and to a lesser extent, of Bush, to special interest groups (Indian tribes who owned casinoes or had casino related ambitions), and to corporations like Tyco, who wanted tax laws that benefit Bermuda incorporation to remain unchanged. Abramoff now seems to have been everywhere:

John McCain's senate committee is investigating his activities.
David Safavian was indicted last week, accused of lying about Abramoff.
Former Tyco counsel Flanigan is pending Bush appointee for second highest slot in the Justice dept., but he paid Abramoff, Tyco's millions to lobby...

Norquist, according to AJC.com , laundered over $800,000 of Indian Tribe money for Abramoff.

Abramoff's former admin. asst., Susan Ralston, was appointed by Bush in 2001 as a white house assistant to Karl Rove. There are reports that she submits all of the names of those who try to telephone Rove, to Grover Norquist for pre-approval. Just as in the report about lobbyists (below), no one makes initial contact with Rove unless Norquist approves them.

Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, investigating the Plame CIA leak, subpoened Susan Ralston to ask her why incoming calls from Time reporter Matt Cooper were not on the call log that Rove submitted to Fitzgerald's grand jury. Fitzgerald may have discovered the Ralston connection to Abramoff and to Norquist, and may have futher investigated these relationships. Fitzgerald is supposed to finish his investigation in the next 30 days. If Bush appointee, Flanigan (above), is approved by the senate, he will oversee prosecutor Fitzgerald, but he only has the option to let him continue....or fire him!

This week, a new investigation of Bush's removal of a federal prosecutor who was investigating Abramoff's dealings with the government of Guam, was disclosed. Prosecutor Frederick Black was demoted and his investigation was ordered stopped. His replacement was reportedly approved by Rove.

Abramoff was indicted on Aug. 12 in a $23 million wire fraud crime. His partner in a gambling cruise line purchase that went bankrupt nine months after they bought it, is suspected this week of paying $250,000 to a Gambino Mob book keeper and his two associates to have the former cruise line owner murdered.
Abramoff is reported to be co-operating with prosecutors. Who do you think he is most likely to roll over on first.....Rove, Norquist, Bush, or Tom Delay?

In summary, the reports are that no lobbyist got access to Delay unless they hired one of Norquist's people, and became a Norquist approved lobbying firm.
The number of lobbyists has doubled since 2000, to over 34,000. Lobbyists who hire democrats are shut out by Norquist and Delay. Corporations who contribute money to democrats are monitored by Norquist and pressured to stop.

No new contact can talk to Rove until Abramoff's former assistant, Susan Ralston, submits the name and then gets approval from Norquist. Norquist holds no government office.

There is the casino cruise ship wire fraud plus murder investigation, the Delay ties to Abramoff, including Mike Scanlon, Abramoff paid trips that Delay took to Scotland and Russia, and the Marianas (Guam), the Indian Tribe payments investigation, senator McCain's committee investigation, the new David Safavian indictment, the investigation over the Bush halting of Guam prosecutor Black's investigation, and.....whatever Plame prosecutor Fitzgerald soon announces, or whether the senate approves Timothy Flanigan for the justice dept. position, in time for him to attempt to stop Fitzgerald from concluding and revealing his results about the Plame leaker and Susan Ralston's testimony, and perhaps much more.