tom delay indicted again

Last week, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) was indicted for some kinda illegal-campaign-donations thing. Frankly, I've been too busy to make sense of it. According to the Washington Post, the charge was:

"...criminally conspiring with two political associates to inject illegal corporate contributions into 2002 state elections that helped the Republican Party reorder the congressional map in Texas and cement its control of the House in Washington."

People who don't like the Republican Party were pretty happy about this indictment, until they realized that it was in some ways a minor offense, and might not amount to much.

But hey whoa now, a totally different jury has now indicted this guy on two more counts, and these ones are serious. From the Washington Post again:

"One count of the new indictment accuses DeLay of conspiracy to commit money laundering. ...The other new count alleges that DeLay and the two associates 'did knowingly, conduct, supervise, and facilitate' the transfer of $190,000 to Washington and back to Texas in violation of the state's money-laundering statutes."

The speed of this new indictment suggests the prosecutor has a pretty solid case. Either way, it puts a kink in DeLay's effort to reclaim his position as majority leader, which he relinquished after the first charges were laid.