John Bresnahan over at The Politico reports that a federal grand jury has subpoenaed House payroll records for Ed Buckham, formerly ex-Rep. Tom DeLay's (R-TX) chief of staff. Bresnahan notes that it's a clear indication that the feds are closing in on Buckham, who left DeLay to found the Alexander Strategy Group, the firm that made millions as the gateway to DeLay during the heady years when he ran the Hill.

Buckham, as DeLay's bag man, has long been considered the key to prosecutors building a case against DeLay as part of the Jack Abramoff investigation. The vise has been closing on him for quite some time. But Peter Stone reports in this month's National Journal that Buckham finally turned down a deal offered by prosecutors to plead guilty, and that "he expects to be indicted soon."

Buckham would be the third former DeLay aide to be targeted in the scandal. Two other ex-aides who went on to work with Abramoff, Michael Scanlon and Tony Rudy, have pleaded guilty.

Note: Here's our rundown on all of Buckham's many entanglements.

Update: Back in May, DeLay challenged the Justice Department to "Fish or cut bait. Do something," since they seemed to be taking their own sweet time questioning his associates about his relationship to Buckham and Abramoff. It appears that the Department has chosen the "fish" option.

Here's something that comes to us via very-alert DailyKos diarist drational. The day after Alberto Gonzales and Andrew Card ran to John Ashcroft's hospital room to have him overrule acting attorney general James Comey's determination that the administration's warrantless surveillance program was illegal, the White House gave a briefing on the super-secret program to none other than Tom DeLay.

Practically no members of Congress knew about the surveillance. The White House typically limited Congressional notification about the program to the bipartisan political leadership of the House and Senate and the heads of the Congressional intelligence committees -- the so-called Gang of Eight. DeLay, then the top House Republican, has no intelligence experience, and just the day before, at the White House, House Speaker Dennis Hastert received a briefing about the program, making DeLay's presence the next day redundant. The second-ranking House Democrat in 2004, then-whip Steny Hoyer of Maryland, didn't receive a similar briefing.

"It sounds like a political decision on the part of the White House, rather than one driven by legal imperatives or Congressional norms," says Steven Aftergood, an intelligence expert with the Federation of American Scientists. "The obvious speculation is that they judged that they had a political fight on their hands and wanted to enlist him on their side."

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The latest development in ex-Rep. Tom DeLay's (R-TX) looooong, winding legal road: DeLay successfully argued to have a conspiracy charge dropped against him -- but he's still on the hook for money laundering charges. Today a state appeals court upheld an earlier district court ruling, the AP reports. To give you a sense of how fast they move down there in Texas, it took a whole year for the appeals court to deliver its ruling.

DeLay was indicted in September of 2005 by Austin District Attorney Ronnie Earle -- since then, both camps have been battling over the charges. A trial date has still not been set.

The charges here deal with accusations that DeLay helped funnel corporate political contributions (illegal in Texas) through his political committees to state candidates. DeLay is also reportedly under federal investigation for his ties to Jack Abramoff, but he has not been charged.

Hell hath no fury like a lawmaker searched!

Or something like that.

Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) is furious that the FBI is thoroughly investigating him, issuing subpoenas for documents, and interviewing a number of his former aides.

For one thing, the Justice Department just won't stop asking questions about his wife's work for two organizations controlled by Ed Buckham, a lobbyist and close associate of Jack Abramoff. Here's DeLay speaking with reporters yesterday:

“They’re going after other people and they’re questioning the other people about whether they know anything I may have done. And we’ve given them all the records and that’s the problem they’re having.... [My wife] did her work and she was underpaid for the work she did and they can’t make the case. It’s a Justice Department that is running amok. Fish or cut bait. Do something.”

Yeah, bring 'em on!

It's at this point that DeLay's defense lawyer, Richard Cullen, steps in to moderate. You can hear the soothing tone: “When Tom DeLay said that [about Justice], it reflected frustration that many people feel when they are involved in an investigation... We are very comfortable that the Justice Department is proceeding properly and expeditiously."

Investigators have reportedly been probing whether DeLay's wife actually did any work at those jobs, but that's far from their sole focus. Abramoff and DeLay were key allies; a bond forged by millions of dollars. It's no coincidence that two of DeLay's former aides have pled guilty in the Abramoff scandal, and a third, Buckham, is in danger of being indicted.

But DeLay isn't the only lawmaker who's outraged (outraged!) by the FBI's tactics. Rep. John Doolittle (R-CA), who is also in investigators' sights for his ties to Abramoff, just can't believe that the FBI searched everything in his house:

“The agents systematically searched our home, removing every book, turning over every couch cushion and every pot and pan, and rummaging through every drawer, file cabinet, cupboard and closet...”

The nerve.

The Jack Abramoff investigation has certainly come roaring out of its hibernation.

Next on the list, apparently, is Tom DeLay's former right-hand man, Ed Buckham. From The Houston Chronicle:

...prosecutors could decide within weeks whether to bring charges against former DeLay staff chief Edwin Buckham, according to sources close to the investigation who spoke on the condition that they not be identified. The decision should give a clear signal on whether DeLay remains in legal jeopardy, the sources said.

As we've noted before, Buckham was the main cog in DeLay's operation and a close associate of Abramoff.

And he also -- to further burnish his status as a distinguished muckrakee -- acted as the lobbyist for Brent Wilkes, the defense contractor who was recently indicted for bribing Duke Cunningham and CIA #3 Dusty Foggo.

Via ThinkProgress, I see that Tom DeLay has admitted to not authoring his own blog posts. "“I have the ideas, and I have somebody else put the words together," says he.

Punchline, anyone?

Here's another major Republican name who blames Americans first for the problems in Iraq — and will explain why. Tom DeLay, appearing on Hannity and Colmes last night to promote his new on-and-off blog, took square aim at the real culprits for problems in the war in Iraq. "It's the fault of the liberals and the media and the Democrats, that from the very beginning have tried to undermine the will of the American people to fight this," DeLay said.

After Alan Colmes, in a moment of bravery, reminded DeLay that Democrats were out of power during the course of this war, DeLay nevertheless set out to explain in detail just how the problems in Iraq are the fault of liberals and other war critics. "It has nothing to do with power," DeLay said. "It has everything to do with perception, Alan, and you know it as well as I do."

The new slogan for Fox News and the Bush Administration: "It has everything to do with perception."

TPMmuckraker welcomes Tom DeLay, former Majority Leader and frequent post subject, to the blogosphere.

Although the stated purpose of TomDeLay.com is to "find new ways to connect, unite and organize conservatives from all over America into a real grassroots political force," I have to say, the blog is the perfect place for him to keep everyone updated on all his legal travails. Hopefully he'll realize that eventually. Who better to give us the skinny on the Jack Abramoff investigation than one of its main subjects?

Update: More on Tom DeLay's "new conservative force" here.

Update: Shortly after launching, DeLay's blog quickly dropped the comments after his invitation in his inaugural post to "speak truth to power" was taken too literally by visitors. Luckily, an enterprising blogger preserved them here.

And the medal for most imaginative ethics ruling goes to... Texas! From The Houston Chronicle:

A Texas official who receives any sum of cash as a gift can satisfy state disclosure laws by reporting the money simply as "currency," without specifying the amount, the Texas Ethics Commission reiterated Monday.

The 5-3 decision outraged watchdog groups and some officials who unabashedly accused the commission of failing to enforce state campaign finance laws.

"What the Ethics Commission has done is legalize bribery in the state of Texas. We call on the commission to resign en masse," said Tom "Smitty" Smith, who heads Texas Citizen, an Austin-based group that advocates for campaign finance reform.

Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle, a Democrat, said the "currency" interpretation would render it "perfectly legal to report the gift of 'a wheelbarrow' without reporting that the wheelbarrow was filled with cash."

Presumably that trick would also work with a bathtub, a pinata, or any other vessel that you'd care to give your lawmaker or state official.

Earlier this year, the commission ruled that a gift of a check, no matter the amount, could simply be disclosed as "checks."

The ruling stems from a case last year, when Houston millionaire and GOP attack group funder Bob Perry gave Bill Ceverha, a member of the State Employees Retirement System board, a $50,000 check, which was disclosed only as "check." According to the Chronicle, "[b]oth men have said the check for $50,000 was supposed to help cover legal fees Ceverha incurred defending himself against a civil lawsuit related to his role as treasurer of former Majority Leader Tom DeLay's Texas fundraising operation."

We've noted the desperate straits that the Republicans in Texas' 22nd District find themselves in before. How can they possibly achieve the almost unprecedented feat of winning with a write-in candidate? And one with a hyphenated name at that?

The Los Angeles Times has the answer: song.

At a campaign stop last week, congressional candidate Shelley Sekula-Gibbs asked a group of women who own businesses to vote for her twice in November: once in a special election to fill the unexpired term of former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, and again in the general election as the Republican write-in candidate running for the full two-year term.

The women, meeting for breakfast in a hotel banquet room, looked up from their scrambled eggs as Sekula-Gibbs launched into a jingle to drive home the point: "Vote twice for Shelley," she sang to the tune of "Roll Out the Barrel." "Special and then write her in."

Hmm... Under most circumstances, I'd say that "Vote twice for Shelley" is an unwise campaign slogan.

The screwiest election in recent memory just got screwier.

Now Democratic candidate Nick Lampson, who's been calling for a special election since May when DeLay announced he'd be retiring, says that he won't be running in the special election, choosing instead to focus on the general.

That's in response to Texas Gov. Rick Perry's (R) call earlier this week for a special election to fill Tom DeLay's seat in the House. The election will take place the same day as the general election, November 7th, and will ensure that Shelley Sekula-Gibbs will appear on at least one ballot (if not on the general election ballot) on Election Day.

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As if the race for Tom DeLay's old seat weren't confusing enough already, what with a hyphenated Republican write-in candidate, now voters will also have the opportunity to elect a temporary representative to fill the empty seat from November through January. The elections (general and special) will take place the same day.

As a benefit of Gov. Rick Perry's move, voters will now see at least one ballot with the name of the official GOP candidate. Perry's spokesperson says they waited this long because of DeLay's legal wranglings.

The AP explains:

In the general election, Democrat Nick Lampson is the Democrat candidate, and Republicans have thrown their support behind Houston city councilwoman Shelley Sekula-Gibbs as a write-in candidate after the courts refused DeLay's efforts to remove his name from the ballot.

Because both elections are on the same day, there's a chance Lampson and Sekula-Gibbs could appear on both ballots. That means one of them could win both elections, taking over after the election and remaining in office for a two-year term starting in January.

From the AP:

Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay said he never thought the courts would prevent the Republican Party from replacing him on the November ballot, a Houston television station reported Thursday.

"I'm very disappointed in our justice system. There doesn't seem to be justice," DeLay told KTRK-TV....

DeLay said he doesn't have second thoughts about his decision to resign from Congress and give GOP leaders a chance to replace him on the ballot.

"Knowing what I know now, I don't think I would have done it any differently because I read Texas law, I knew what Texas law was," he told the television station.

Does this sound like a man who needs a legal team drawn from nine different firms? Won't all those lawyers just get in the way of his righteous knowledge?

From The Austin-American Statesman:

"The law that helped drive U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay from office and put two of his allies under criminal indictment can't be understood by the "man in the street," defense lawyers argued this morning.

Lawyers for Jim Ellis and John Colyandro, two DeLay lieutenants who operated Texans for a Republican Majority during the 2002 campaign, argued that the 3rd Court of Appeals should throw out indictments brought against their clients because the state's ban on corporate campaign money is confusing."

Via The Stakeholder.

After Tom DeLay dropped out last week, the Texas GOP was forced to try a Hail Mary, throwing their support behind a write-in candidate. But the candidate's name -- Shelley Sekula-Gibbs -- may be a problem.

In short, the Republican strategy is now this: tens of thousands of GOP voters will go to the polls on November 7, ignore the names printed on the ballot, and write in a hyphenated name of 20 characters (counting spaces). A long shot, for sure -- as the AP noted, only four candidates in U.S. electoral history have ever succeeded with a write-in campaign.

But it gets trickier. Voters in Texas' 22nd District will use the eSlate electronic voting machine. I decided to take it for a test drive and experience the thrill of democracy myself -- which you can do on Hart Intercivic's website.

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Tom DeLay's former aides continued to make millions off their access to the onetime majority leader even after major scandals broke, new filings show.

Alexander Strategy Group may be no more, but they had their biggest year ever in 2005 -- before abruptly closing their doors in January of this year due to the Jack Abramoff probe.

The small firm, known for its unrivaled access to Tom DeLay, pulled down $8.13 million in 2005 from big-time clients like Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), UPS, RJ Reynolds, and the U.S. Telecom Association, making 2005 the firm's biggest year yet, according to lobbying disclosure records filed last week.

$170,000 of that came from Brent Wilkes, one of the defense contractors fingered for bribing Duke Cunningham in the congressman's guilty plea.

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David Wallace had thumbed his nose at the 22nd District Republican powwow last week and said he'd run no matter who they picked to be official write-in candidate. That "may have worked in Moscow," he said then.

Well, apparently it works in Sugar Land, too. After pressure from local and national Republicans, Wallace is dropping out, helping Republicans improve their prospects from hopeless (two write-in candidates) to dismal (only one).

Update: More here. Turns out the Republican National Committee had promised to put $3 million in the race -- but only if Wallace dropped out.

In the wake of Tom DeLay's messy exit, local Republican leaders have been scrambling to find a replacement. Last night, a meeting of Republican precinct chairmen selected Dr. Shelley Sekula-Gibbs to be their chosen write-in candidate.

But another prominent local Republican, David Wallace, also filed as a write-in candidate and earlier this week vowed to run regardless of the meeting's outcome, deriding the process as "something that may have worked in Moscow." (Sekula-Gibbs said she'd drop out if the party elders didn't choose her.)

So it looks like Republicans, already severely disadvantaged by lacking a legitimate official candidate on the ballot in Texas' 22nd District, will have the added handicap of having two GOPers running as write-in candidates. As the AP points out, only four men have ever been elected to Congress as write-in candidates.

Will Wallace stick to his guns? We hope to hear soon. With the disarray among Republicans in the district so great that some have publicly endorsed the Libertarian candidate, Democrat Nick Lampson is sitting pretty.

Update: TPM Reader AG chimes in:

Quick thought - Everything else being equal, wouldn't a 'John Smith' have a better chance of being written in than a 'Shelley Sekula-Gibbs?' Is the actual name of the candidate any part of the calculus that the Republicans are thinking of? I know it sounds stupid, but I was living in the Bay Area in 1999, when Tom Ammiano almost won as a write-in candidate for mayor of San Francisco, and I recall there being some confusion as to how close to his name you had to write on the ballot. Just a thought.

Wow -- the disaster continues to unfold. From today's Houston Chronicle:

Republican leaders hoping to preserve the party's hold on the district formerly represented by Tom DeLay disagreed Wednesday about a meeting scheduled tonight to seek consensus on a write-in candidate.

Fort Bend County Chairman Gary Gillen wrote a letter to prospective candidates in the county urging them not to attend the meeting, saying it excluded grass-roots Republicans. But his counterpart in Harris County, Jared Woodfill, said the gathering was the best way to unify the party behind a single Republican candidate.

As I noted yesterday, one Republican candidate is already thumbing his nose at the process, saying he'll run no matter what the outcome of the meeting.

The Republicans hope for retaining DeLay's seat is already faint since coaxing voters to write in a candidate's name is notoriously difficult -- but if they can't agree on a single candidate, then the situation fast becomes hopeless.

The disarray has caused one Republican, former Rep. Bob Barr (R-GA), to publicly endorse the Libertarian candidate. While not a GOPer, he does have his name on the ballot.

Texas Republicans are scrambling to choose their party's "official" write-in candidate to oppose Democrat Nick Lampson's congressional run. Because Tom DeLay withdrew late from the race for Texas' 22nd district seat, Republicans are barred from officially nominating a candidate and placing his or her name on the ballot.

At least three GOPers have thrown their hats in the ring, and the local Republican leadership is scheduled to meet Thursday to make the call. One, perceived frontrunner David Wallace -- also mayor of DeLay's (former?) hometown of Sugar Land -- says he's running no matter what party says.

Last week, Wallace's spokesman called the Republicans' powwow a "non-binding mock election." Harsh, no? But since then he's juiced up his rhetoric even further. Here's Wallace in today's New York Times:

[Wallace] disparaged the meeting, saying “that may have worked in Moscow,” and vowed to keep running even if it meant two Republican write-in candidates.

Although Wallace has raised the most money and claims the support of many local big-wigs, there is apparently some resistance to Wallace's push in the party. For one, the Texas Republican Chairwoman is "no friend of his campaign," he told the Times.

At least two other Republicans have expressed interest in running for the seat. One of them is Dr. Shelley Sekula-Gibbs, a dermatologist and Houston City Council member. She told me that unlike Wallace, she'd bow out if local Republicans tapped another candidate.

Yes, Justice Antonin Scalia did stab Tom DeLay in the back -- it must be hard for DeLay to see it any other way. And he isn't happy.

From an interview with Byron York:

...courts up to the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected DeLay’s arguments, and then Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who handles such matters for the Fifth Circuit, rejected DeLay’s argument in a matter of hours. I asked DeLay if he had a problem with Scalia’s handling of the case. “Yes, I do,” DeLay said. “He obviously spent no time looking at what’s happening in the court in which he has oversight. Within three hours, he denied this stay.”

“You can always count on the judiciary to make stupid rulings,” DeLay told me. “Not only stupid, but dangerous.”

And there's another gem from the interview. In Tom DeLay's statement withdrawing from the race, he explained that his move to Virginia was "irrevocable" -- there was simply no way he was ever going to reenter the race in Texas, no matter what a handful of federal judges said. It would have been "sheer hypocrisy," he said.

But, well, that irrevocability wasn't the real reason DeLay finally bowed out. He was still polling badly:

Before he made up his mind, DeLay commissioned a poll of voters in the 22nd District. “My negatives were still high,” he told me, even though he retained a sizable core of strong supporters. The poll also found that several other Republican candidates would have a better chance against Democrat Nick Lampson. Even though DeLay believed he could still win if he mounted a vigorous campaign, the poll reinforced his belief that getting out was the right thing to do.

Earlier, I referred to whispers that rather than run himself, Tom DeLay would back a write-in candidate.

This afternoon he made it official. He's withdrawing from the race. As the AP reports, "Several Republicans said local party officials hoped to unite behind a write-in candidate, possibly David Wallace, mayor of DeLay's home town of Sugar Land."

Full statement here.

Justice Scalia's decision yesterday gave the Texas GOP unsavory options: run Tom DeLay despite his troubles and unwillingness to serve, or let Lampson run unopposed. But there's a third -- and far riskier -- option: the state party can back a write-in candidate.

Time's Mike Allen reports:

On Monday, the Democrats won the ballot battle and Republican sources tell TIME that DeLay is leaning to another surprising move -- stepping aside and supporting a write-in candidate for his old seat.

A Republican official with first-hand knowledge of the deliberations by DeLay said he "more likely than not" will go that route, although he had not made a final decision. "With DeLay, you never know," the official said.

DeLay plans to make the announcement this week, the officials said....

Some Republican lawyers said the write-in strategy could prevail if DeLay's name remains on the ballot, or if officials allow him to withdraw so that no Republican name appears....

But the notion of a write-in campaign drew a different reaction in Texas. "This would be met with ridicule and scorn," said Bill Miller, a Republican consultant with close ties to the state's GOP legislative leadership. "This strategy would be like handing the seat to the Democrats on a silver platter," Miller said. "Tom Delay will be remembered for the craziest end to his political career."

Miller said it is arrogant to think voters will support a write-in gambit. "Anointing a candidate never works," Miller said. "Voters are likely to say, 'The hell with 'em' and write in their own name, their kid's name." Plus, if his name remained on the ballot, it is likely DeLay would attract some of the vote away from the write-in candidate.

Via Hotline.