Conservatives rally around DeLay

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Heading into tomorrow night's celebration banquet for Tom DeLay, conservatives say the House majority leader is in better shape to weather ethics accusations now than he was six weeks ago when they began to plan a defense strategy.

"I think conservatives have rallied and sort of circled the wagons around Tom, more strongly than they had at that point. The case has really gotten out," said David A. Keene, chairman of the American Conservative Union (ACU). "His position is probably stronger now than it was at that time -- I don't mean internally, I mean in terms of the overall community; you don't have new stories every day, it's all recycled."

He and other major leaders have organized the dinner at the Capital Hilton for about 800 conservatives, meant to stiffen Republicans' resolve to back Mr. DeLay and to send a signal to the political world that they do not intend to let him be chased from his leadership role.

"As a movement, we do not stand idly by when our opponents and his single out a member of the movement, a leader of the movement, and attempt to politically kneecap him," Mr. Keene said.

Six weeks ago, as the majority leader was being hit by a series of accusations that lobbyists paid for foreign travel in violation of House ethics rules, and by rumblings from a few members of his own party that he might step aside, a group of conservative leaders met and declared it was time to push back.

They announced a litmus test for conservative lawmakers to stand up and defend Mr. DeLay, and decided to hold this week's dinner as a show of support.

"The message here is not only is it not driving a wedge, but it's actually drawing his conservative base closer to him," said Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, another of the dinner's major sponsors.

He and Mr. Keene said they have been surprised by how Republican lawmakers have rallied to the Texas Republican's defense.

"Usually when somebody gets tagged like this, there's this almost Jonah-and-the-whale thing where they start throwing people overboard so they can weather the storm," Mr. Perkins said. "Nobody is talking about throwing Tom DeLay overboard. In fact, people are saying we're in this together."

Mr. Keene said there just haven't been defections.