DeLay's Leadership Delayed

WASHINGTON, Sept. 28 - Representative Tom DeLay of Texas, the powerful House Republican majority leader, was accused by a Texas grand jury today of criminal conspiracy in a campaign fund-raising scheme.

Mr. DeLay was indicted on one count charging that he violated state election laws in September 2002. Two political associates, John D. Colyandro and James W. Ellis, were indicted with him.

The indictment of Mr. DeLay, while not entirely unexpected, still reverberated through the Capitol. The House Republican rules require a member of the leadership to step down, at least temporarily, if indicted. Representative David Dreier of California is expected to replace him.

A conviction on the felony charge against Mr. DeLay, 58, carries a maximum sentence of two years in prison. The lawmaker has consistently maintained his innocence and today asserted that the indictment resulted from a "purely political investigation" by the Travis County district attorney, Ronnie Earle, a Democrat.

"I have done nothing wrong," Mr. DeLay said, adding that he had violated "no law, no regulation, no rule of the House."

Mr. DeLay, speaking on Capitol Hill, described Mr. Erle, a longtime antagonist, as "a partisan fanatic" and a "rogue district attorney" and said the prosecutor had shamelessly courted journalists on "the only days he actually comes to the office."

Mr. DeLay said the charge lodged against him today was "one of the weakest, most baseless indictments in American history," one that is "a sham, and Mr. Earle knows it."

Mr. Earle, in a separate news conference, disputed Mr. DeLay's contentions. "We have over the years prosecuted a number of public officials," he said in Houston, adding that it was his duty to go after "abuses of power." In fact, he said, he has prosecuted more Democrats than Republicans.

And of course he has. That's because Democrats are more prone to criminal tactics than Republicans.