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A Conservative Salute to DeLay

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Times Staff Writer

The conservative faithful filled a Washington hotel ballroom Thursday night to praise beleaguered House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and blast his opponents -- Democrats “and their friends in the liberal media” -- for unfair and hypocritical attacks.

The $250-a-plate dinner, sponsored by the American Conservative Union, brought more than 900 supporters to the Capital Hilton -- GOP lobbyists, evangelical pastors, four dozen current and former members of Congress, Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman and scores of young conservative activists.

As guests dined on salmon and filet mignon, they heard videotaped tributes to the Texas Republican from House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert of Illinois, former North Carolina Sen. Jesse Helms, Focus on the Family leader James Dobson and other conservative luminaries.

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The event was planned by more than a dozen conservative organizations in Washington to shore up support for DeLay among Republicans and to send a signal that they will not allow him to be chased from office.

Jack Kemp, a former congressman, Cabinet member and GOP vice presidential candidate, told reporters that he was there because “the majority leader is going through a challenging time and we are rallying to his side.”

Ethical questions swirl around DeLay for his relationship with lobbyists, fundraising practices and work-related travel that included lavish overseas golf outings. But the message Thursday was clear: This crowd is sticking with him.

“If they pick a fight with Tom DeLay, they pick a fight with all of us,” said Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council before giving the closing prayer.

Most every speaker echoed the pugnacious theme. “We don’t run from our wounded,” said Paul Weyrich of the Free Congress Foundation.

“Are we going to let them beat him down?” asked former Louisiana congressman Bob Livingston, the Speaker-designate who resigned his seat during the 1998 Clinton impeachment shortly after reports surfaced of Livingston’s extramarital affairs.

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“No!” the crowd roared.

“Are we going to fight to be sure Tom DeLay is here for a long time to come?”

“Yes!”

Despite the tough talk, a significant portion of the evening, broadcast on the C-SPAN cable-TV network and well attended by reporters, was designed to present a softer impression of DeLay, whose tactics earned him the nickname “the Hammer.”

A video and several speakers praised DeLay’s religious faith, his generosity and his willingness to take in foster children, including several troubled teens.

The most emotional tribute came from Ena Feinberg, mother of a family of Russian Jewish “refuseniks” trapped in the Soviet Union. In 1987, DeLay, just beginning his congressional career, traveled to Moscow to celebrate Passover and arrange their escape to the United States.

Feinberg told the emotional story of DeLay’s visit and their flourishing life in Boston. “Tom adopted our family,” she said, describing the rescue and her family’s subsequent good fortune.

“Thank you, guys,” she said, then hugged DeLay and his wife, Christine.

When it was his turn to speak, DeLay addressed the reporters in the hall, telling them that on that trip to the Soviet Union, Moscow had no golf courses so “we didn’t play golf” -- an allusion to his current troubles.

The ethics questions facing DeLay result partly from trips -- including a golf outing in Scotland -- arranged by Jack Abramoff, a lobbyist and former DeLay staffer under investigation for his dealings with Indian tribes that had paid him millions of dollars. House rules forbid members to take trips paid for by lobbyists.

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DeLay has portrayed the ethics questions as a smear campaign but has asked the House ethics committee to review his travel records. He has said he believed that the trips in question were paid for by nonprofit groups, which is legal under House rules.

DeLay’s speech Thursday night did not dwell on his ethical troubles, but concentrated instead on Republican accomplishments in recent years -- and Democratic failures.

“No ideas. No leadership. No agenda,” he said, summarizing his view of the Democratic Party.

He suggested adding “no class” to that list, a reference to Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid’s recent complaint to schoolchildren -- for which he subsequently apologized -- that President Bush was “a loser.”

“The tide has turned,” DeLay said, surveying the 912 guests in attendance. “We live now in a right-of-center nation. Democrat leaders may wish we just disappeared or that they could defeat us by some means other than the ballot box. But I’ll tell you just what I tell them: ‘We’re just getting warmed up.’ ”

While praise for DeLay resounded inside the crowded ballroom, there was a carnival atmosphere outside. Demonstrators set up a balloon-laden “wheel of corruption” mocking DeLay’s relationship with lobbyists and his foreign trips.

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A young woman handed out bars of soap to arriving dinner guests, asking them to clean up “DeLay’s ethics mess.” But the protesters had little effect on the conservative crowd.

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