As Republicans scramble to defend Tom DeLay, there were significant developments in a scandal involving the Senate’s top Republican, Majority Leader Dr. Bill Frist. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has given subpoena power to investigators looking into potential insider trading by Frist of shares of his family’s corporation the Hospital Corporation of America. The SEC has officially changed the investigation’s status from informal to formal. The nonpartisan Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights estimates that Frist made between $2 million and $6 million by selling his HCA holdings just before stock values plummeted in the face of a bad earnings report.