DeLay Faces Lengthy Inquiry

But even if the panel begins immediately, it is expected to take six months to a year to complete an investigation into DeLay's conduct -- and there is no guarantee that either the House majority leader or the committee will emerge unscathed, legal experts say.

"In this case, the stakes are particularly high, both for Mr. DeLay, given his history of ethics lapses, and for this committee," said Kathleen Clark, a law professor at Washington University in St. Louis who specializes in legal and government ethics.

She says the public will want to know this: "Will the committee be able to act in a bipartisan manner in the way that it has in the past?"

On Wednesday, DeLay characterized the forthcoming inquiry by the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct as not so much a formal investigation of him, but as a chance to answer questions about his conduct while helping to guide the committee to clarify its rules on travel and gifts.

Asked whether he thought the existing rules were clear, he responded: "No, obviously not."

Experts say DeLay is likely to find himself entangled in a process that will be lengthy and carried out largely in secret -- and it will be committee members, not DeLay, who will shape the scope of the investigation.

In order to establish its credibility, the panel "needs to take hold of this case and decide how it is going to proceed," said Kenneth A. Gross, a Washington lawyer who has informally advised legislators under investigation by the ethics committee.

If the DeLay investigation "is going to have any credibility," he said in a interview Thursday, "it needs to be shaped and controlled by the committee with some orderly process."

Under the most likely scenario, Reps. Doc Hastings (R-Wash.), the panel chairman, and Alan B. Mollohan of West Virginia, the ranking Democrat on the committee, will review the news reports and jointly notify DeLay that he is the subject of a preliminary investigation. At that point, Hastings and Mollohan may informally question DeLay and others.

If that informal inquiry raises enough questions, the full committee will be asked to vote to form an investigative subcommittee with the power to subpoena witnesses and documents.