Tim Curran, editor of Roll Call, spent some time on a washingtonpost.com chat answering readers' questions about the DeLay indictment earlier this afternoon. Some interesting questions, and answers. Check it out.

According to Glen Justice in today's New York Times, scandalized lobbyist Jack Abramoff's upscale restaurant Signatures might not be bustling now, but in its heyday, it was filled with high-powered elected officials and well-heeled lobbyists.

For example, Justice cites an e-mail that Abramoff wrote to his restaurant managers in May 2002 which gives instructions on how to handle VIP Majority Leader Tom DeLay and his wife.

Laughing all the way to the bank.

Majority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Missouri) defended DeLay on Meet the Press recently (registration required for link):

My impression is he has not done anything wrong.

He's in denial. He doesn't deserve to be in leadership of the House. All he passes is a loyalty test. And he's got a shady past with big tobacco campaign money.

Roll Call takes a quick looksy at Tom DeLay's legal defense fund contributors, and finds this:

Newly released reports from DeLay’s Legal Expense Trust show that the fund received contributions of at least $250 each from six Blunt staffers from Jan. 1 to March 31. In total, the trust banked $48,000 and spent $34,000 in the quarter.

This morning's New York Times story about the letter from 10 Republican ex-Representatives we helped to coordinate is accompanied by great local press regarding members of Congress feeling the heat.

We've launched aother series of TV ads in the districts of Reps. Roy Blunt of Missouri, Jim Nussle of Iowa, and Jim Gerlach of Pennsylvania to urge them to demand that Tom DeLay resign.

Here's a screenshot of the ad.

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Just in from National Journal's CongressDaily, a report from ousted Ethics Committee Chairman Joel Hefley (R-CO) on the response of GOPers when an "unidentified member" (House Majority Whip Roy Blunt (R-MO)) spoke up for Tom DeLay at the weekly Republican Conference meeting:

This just in (Bloomberg).

GOP members emerged from a meeting regarding DeLay's future and Rep. Roy Blunt of Missouri, the number three Republican in the House led the defensive press conference:

House Majority Whip Roy Blunt said questions about Majority Leader Tom DeLay's foreign travels and links to a lobbyist were politically motivated and had not weakened his support among Republican lawmakers.