Special Message on Menu at Dinner for DeLay

The leaders of the conservative movement will be there, along with the foot soldiers.

More than 800 people are expected to gather Thursday night at a Washington hotel for a show of solidarity with their beleaguered hero, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas).

DeLay, who was admonished three times last year for his political tactics, faces another investigation by the House ethics committee and has been raising money for his defense. But this $2,000-a-table dinner isn’t about money. It’s about sending a message.

Conservatives believe that DeLay’s troubles stem not from ethical issues, but from an organized effort by liberals to bring down one of their movement’s most effective standard-bearers and thwart their agenda.

The idea for what amounts to a pep rally came during a meeting between DeLay and the activists whose causes he has championed for two decades on Capitol Hill.

“We felt that ... we can’t just really stand by and let our ideological opponents single out one of our leaders and trash him without responding,” said David A. Keene, chairman of the American Conservative Union.

Keene added that he told DeLay, “This is for you, but it’s really for us.”

The House ethics committee, known officially as the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, is about to begin investigating reports that DeLay accepted trips funded by a lobbyist and by a foreign agent, a violation of House rules. DeLay has said he believed that the trips were paid for by nonprofit groups.

Organizers describe the evening as a testimonial, not a fundraiser, and say that the money raised will go to defray the event’s costs.

The guest list for the dinner, at which DeLay is expected to speak, includes luminaries of the capital’s conservative establishment, including Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman and dozens of DeLay’s House colleagues.

Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform, whose organization has five tables at the dinner, said, “The conservative movement is doing this because he has been a hero to us and the left is going after him.”

But it’s not just the politically powerful who support DeLay. Marc Migliore, a health insurance salesman from New York who has never met the majority leader, said he was going to be there Thursday.

“I’m tired of hearing from the left and not enough from the right,” said Migliore, who added that he admired DeLay for pushing Congress to intervene in the case of Terri Schiavo, the brain-damaged Florida woman who died March 31 after the court-ordered the removal of her feeding tube.

A few business lobbyists will be at the dinner, including Rick Hohlt, a longtime Republican lobbyist for banking and other interests. Hohlt says he bought seats because of his longtime friendship with American Conservative Union Chairman Keene. He also said he believed that DeLay had been treated unfairly and deserved to be considered innocent until proven guilty.

Among those scheduled to pay tribute to DeLay is former Rep. Bob Livingston of Louisiana, a conservative Republican who in 1998 was in line to become speaker of the House before allegations of marital infidelity led him to resign from Congress. Members of Livingston’s lobbying firm will also be at the dinner.

Most of the seats, though, will be filled by conservative activists, not business lobbyists. Leaders of many of the city’s top trade associations and lobbying firms said they were not going to attend, although some had received invitations to buy tickets.

Even some planning to attend the dinner privately acknowledged the possibility that DeLay might not survive as majority leader. DeLay, they said, is not indispensable to the conservative movement in the same way that earlier figures, such as Ronald Reagan and Newt Gingrich, were at various points in recent history.

“The movement has reached a level of maturity,” one said, asking not to be identified. “DeLay is just one among a strong and deep field. If he is taken out, the movement will be fine.”

Indeed, organizers say that one goal of the dinner is to shore up DeLay’s standing among his Republican colleagues.

“Conservatives who are supportive of Tom DeLay need to make it clear that any politician who hopes to have conservative support in the future had better be in the forefront as we go after and respond to those who attack Tom DeLay,” said a dinner organizer, Morton C. Blackwell of the Leadership Institute, which trains conservative activists.

Party strategists have said that DeLay’s position as the House’s No. 2 leader will be threatened if he loses support among his Republican colleagues. Only one House Republican -- Christopher Shays, a moderate from Connecticut -- has called for him to step down as majority leader.

But Democrats have pledged to make DeLay’s behavior an issue in next year’s congressional elections. And political analysts say Republicans could become concerned if they believe their legislative accomplishments are being overshadowed by the controversy surrounding DeLay.

DeLay and his supporters have been portraying the attacks as an all-out assault on the conservative agenda.

“Many conservatives think that the real reason DeLay is being targeted is because of his reputation, not because of his actions,” said GOP strategist Joe Garecht, referring to DeLay’s notoriety as a bare-knuckles politician.

Last year, the ethics committee rebuked DeLay three times for his political tactics. In Texas, three fundraisers with ties to DeLay have been indicted on illegal campaign fundraising charges. And in the next election, DeLay faces his most serious challenge in years -- from former Democratic Rep. Nick Lampson, who lost his seat in 2004 as the result of redistricting in Texas supported by DeLay. Lampson announced earlier this month that he would run against DeLay in 2006.

The Rev. Louis P. Sheldon of the Traditional Values Coalition, who will attend the dinner with several members of his organization, said that religious conservatives hold DeLay in high regard and do not think he has done anything wrong.

“We don’t believe Tom has done anything illegal or immoral,” he said. “We are going to show our support and appreciation.” He said the media had treated DeLay unfairly and that the dinner would help show that “we have not lost faith in Tom.”

Conservatives’ efforts to defend DeLay have been fired up by attacks on the majority leader, such as the vow by Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean to use the DeLay-led congressional intervention in the Schiavo case against the GOP in the 2006 elections, and the posting of billboards in DeLay’s district reading, “Lobbyists sent Tom DeLay golfing; all you got was this billboard” -- a reference to a golf outing that has come under scrutiny.

The dinner is being welcomed by some Democrats who want to keep the spotlight on DeLay as next year’s congressional elections approach. A recent CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll found that unfavorable views of DeLay had nearly doubled since 2003, to 38%. The survey also found that 46% of respondents viewed it as a “very serious ethical matter” for a member of Congress to go on a trip paid for by a lobbyist.

“This is the wrong event at the wrong time for DeLay,” said Peverill Squire, a University of Iowa political scientist. “This dinner is simply going to remind people of the reasons they have their doubts about his ethics. DeLay being toasted by conservative fat cats ought to be the last image his backers want to convey right now.”

But Fred Smith, president of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a group that advocates limited government and a free marketplace, said he would be there Thursday night.

“Greek tragedies with -- one may hope -- happy endings have always been a passion,” he said.