House Majority Leader Tom DeLay should not be untouchable. The powerful Texas Republican has wiggled out of ethics investigations before, but not this time. Not when criminal indictments for illegal fund-raising activities are handed up in Texas against three men associated with his political action committee and eight corporations.

The Houston Republican is trying to brush off any attempt to link him to a scandal unfolding in Texas with a PAC he set up, and on whose advisory board he served, by insisting it "isn't about me." Besides, said the tough-talking Texan, "this is 41 days before the election. You do the political math. People see this for what it is."

That they do, which is why the criminal investigation under way in Texas on the conduct of the fund-raising network formed by Mr. DeLay bears urgent examination by the House Ethics Committee.

A Texas grand jury indicted three close Delay associates running his Texans for a Republican Majority Political Action Committee, and eight out-of-state companies, on 32 felony charges of illegally funneling corporate money to Republican Texas House candidates.

The $2.5 million in corporate contributions raised and spent in 2002 helped Republicans take control of the Texas House for the first time since Reconstruction. In turn, that majority redrew the state's congressional map under Mr. DeLay's direction to give the GOP as many as seven more U.S. House seats this election.

"What has emerged is the outline of an effort to use corporate contributions to control representative democracy in Texas," said Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle.

The grand jury investigation is chilling both in its scope and its ramifications for the congressman. Prosecution documents say Mr. DeLay's PAC raised corporate contributions that were illegal under state law and laundered the money through other groups, including the Republican National Committee, to state candidates. Those indicted in Texas include Mr. DeLay's top political aide and two key fund-raisers.

So it stretches credulity to maintain, as Mr. Delay does, that even though he was actively involved in raising money for his Texas group, making fund-raising appearances, and discussing its strategy and effectiveness in supporting Texas races, he was largely in the dark about its day-to-day operations.

Certainly, while the criminal probe into the fund-raising committees Mr. DeLay directly controlled continues, the House Ethics Committee should seize the Texas indictments as reason enough to investigate complaints against the majority speaker brought by a Texas Democrat who lost his primary race after the districts were redrawn.

Some of U.S. Rep. Chris Bell's charges -- like money laundering through political action committees -- track those under investigation by prosecutors in Texas.

A coalition of government reform organizations is pressing for the ethics inquiry -- and for good reason.