Posted on 05/13/2005 12:40:52 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
WASHINGTON - The conservative faithful rallied around Tom DeLay at a Thursday night dinner in a spirited public display of support for the embattled majority leader.
"It's incredibly humbling that this many people would come out on a very busy night," DeLay told the Houston Chronicle before entering the packed ballroom where he sat on the stage with a who's who of national conservative leaders.
"It certainly sends a very strong message to me that they don't want me to quit because I am under pressure," he said. "And I won't."
The DeLay corps gathered at the downtown Capital Hilton hotel and wined, dined, and heard tributes from the stage and in videos. The American Conservative Union organized the event and said all 900 tickets were sold days in advance. They cost $250 apiece or $2,000 for 10, and the ACU said proceeds were used solely to defray the banquet's costs.
The evening had the fired-up atmosphere of a political rally, with festive interludes of country music — "a nice hootenanny," in the words of L. Brent Bozell, president of the Media Research Center. People sported "Hooray for DeLay" stickers on their lapels, and white-frosted cakes for dessert had pink hammers on top, inspired by DeLay's nickname, "The Hammer."
The event came as DeLay, the high-profile Republican from Sugar Land, faces some of the most challenging times of his career, including a possible ethics investigation into his overseas travel, relationships with lobbyists and fund-raising tactics.
The tribute dinner gave him new strength, he said.
"Democrat leaders may wish we just disappeared," he said. " ... But I'll tell you just what I tell them: We're just getting warmed up.
"We live now in a right-of-center nation, and in a time of historic opportunity," he said.
Conspirators welcomed
Supporters said DeLay is being unfairly targeted.
"He's being attacked because he's conservative and because he's effective," said Cleta Mitchell, master of ceremonies and an ACU board member.
She opened the evening by saying: "Welcome to a celebration of the vast right wing conspiracy, and to every co-conspirator!"
The organizers lined up videotaped testimonials from House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill.; Haley Barbour, the Republican governor of Mississippi; Jesse Helms, former Republican senator from North Carolina; Reps. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., Mike Pence, R-Ind., and Christopher Cox, R-Calif.; James Dobson, chairman of Focus on the Family; and Houston radio talk show host Edd Hendee.
"We appreciate Tom, we appreciate all that he stands for and his leadership, and also his friendship and what he means to our community," Hendee told the Chronicle.
More backers spoke in person at the event, including Bob Livingston, a former Louisiana congressman; writer and activist Phyllis Schlafly; and Paul Weyrich, chairman of the Free Congress Foundation. About three dozen congressional Republicans attended the event along with Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman.
Speaker after speaker pounded the press, in particular the New York Times and the Washington Post, and the audience responded with boos and hisses. Bozell said he put the words "DeLay and scandal" into a database and came up with 833,000 matches.
"This is a media out of control in their commitment to bringing down this man," he said.
No message from President Bush or Vice President Dick Cheney was presented. The White House has said during the ethics controversy that it backs DeLay.
"We are here tonight not because Tom needs our help, but because we, as conservatives, continue to need his," said David Keene, chairman of the American Conservative Union Foundation.
Craig Shirley, an ACU board member, said the dinner culminated a two-month blitz by conservative activists on the Internet, talk radio and op-ed pages "to make sure there was no hemorrhaging of support for DeLay."
So far, the effort has succeeded, Shirley said.
"With the exception of Chris Shays (a Republican congressman from Connecticut), who is a joke anyway, we haven't had any defections," he said.
Shays was the first Republican lawmaker to publicly suggest DeLay step down as Republican leader of the U.S. House.
DeLay has become a defiant hero to conservatives who are "a little bit ambivalent about President Bush," said William Kristol, editor of the conservative Weekly Standard.
"DeLay is the guy who's 100 percent conservative, who's 100 percent red state, and who's 100 percent with you — and who ignores the liberal media and liberal institutions," Kristol said at the dinner. "I think (people) like him because he makes no attempt to compromise."
DeLay told the Chronicle that the attacks against him are "coming because people hate what we are doing."
He commented on the loud, colorful "Carnival O' Corruption" protest, complete with a ringleader and a woman with an elephant puppet on her hand and a sign that read "House 4 Sale," staged outside the hotel by the anti-President Bush group American Family Voices.
"You walk out there on the street and all you see is hate," DeLay said. "And that is really unfortunate. Hate is not an agenda."
Surrounded by friends
The majority leader's speech near the end of the evening recounted GOP accomplishments including banning partial-birth abortions, lowering taxes, and reforming bankruptcy and class-action lawsuit laws.
Before giving the benediction. Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, said, "I think the message here tonight is if they pick a fight with Tom DeLay, they pick a fight with all of us."
stephen.smith@chron.com samantha.levine@chron.com
Don't you just wish that all of our elected Repubs had the spines and moral clarity of Tom DeLay?
Do they see how loved he is? Do they see what the people want? Why are they so chicken?
bttt
Indeed!
Delay getting emotional at his "roast" and support event.
The one hour and thirteen minute event will re-air on C-SPAN at 5:45 Eastern this morning. I watched most of it last night. Bozell, Schlafly and Blackwell are especially good.
http://inside.c-spanarchives.org:8080/cspan/schedule.csp
Public Affairs Event
Tom Delay Tribute Dinner
American Conservative Union
Washington, District of Columbia (United States)
ID: 186711 - 05/12/2005 - 1:13 - $45.00
Livingston, Robert, U.S. Representative (1977-1999), R-LA
McCollum, Bill Jr., U.S. Representative (1981-2001), R-FL
DeLay, Tom, U.S. Representative, R, Texas
Blackwell, Morton, President, Leadership Institute
Bozell III, L. Brent, Founder and President, Media Research Center
Ryan, Paul, U.S. Representative, R-WI
Schlafly, Phyllis, President, Eagle Forum
Blackburn, Marsha, U.S. Representative, R, Tennessee
Weyrich, Paul M., Chairman and CEO, Free Congress Foundation
The American Conservative Union will host a dinner in tribute to House Majority Leader Tom Delay.
THANKS!
About Tancredo :
REAL ID bill draws supports from Hispanic House members
By SONIA MELENDEZ
Hispanic Link News Service
May 12, 2005
- Thirteen Hispanic members of Congress including Reps. Hilda Solis, D-Calif., Robert Menendez, D-N.J., and Henry Bonilla, R-Texas, voted in favor of the military appropriations bill that contains the REAL ID provisions
Eight members, including California Democrats Grace Napolitano and Xavier Becerra, and Ed Pastor, D-Ariz., voted against it, while two members, Florida Republican brothers Mario and Lincoln Diaz-Balart did not vote. The bill passed 368-58.
The immigration provisions are expected to make sweeping changes to the nation's immigration laws. They include tightening rules in granting asylum, creating national standards on driver's licenses, and authorizing funds to complete construction of a three-mile wall along the California-Mexico border.
Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., said all the REAL ID provisions are vital to address the "problem with our insecure borders."
Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., disagreed.
"It's not going to make this country any safer and it doesn't resolve the underlying issue of the undocumented workers," Gutierrez said.
http://www.knoxstudio.com/shns/story.cfm?pk=LATINO-REALID-05-12-05&cat=PP
That's one dessert I'd have to take home and save in the freezer. The Hammer is great.
The only time I have EVER sided with the dems on anything is their opposition to the absolutely horrible Real ID issue.
Shame on the pubs for not only supporting this, but introducing it. And sticking it to a Military funding bill no less.
It will be very hard for me to make myself vote for almost any republican in the future if they keep up their alternating behavior of Missing Gonads Syndrome, and Ever Increasing Government Addiction; and voting democrat is simply not an option nor will it ever be.
I think the pressure is on.
Instead of reading the NY Times and The Washington Post, elected officials on the Hill better start reading the Internet, listening to talk radio and watching cable news.
The pressure is on but I doubt anything will change. I have been completely convinced that the GOP has transformed into the Stupid Party, or the Democrat Lite Party.
I'm not.
DeLay for President 08In the primaries, yes, unbeatable. In the general election DeLay would be the answer to the question "what does Hillary want", though I have to admit, Tancredo is a very interesting VP choice. I just don't see Delay at the top of the ticket. Too many Americans still uncritically accept with the MSM puts in front of them, and the MSM has already successfully stained DeLay. He'd spend more time trying to rub off the stain than talking about the issues.
Tancredo for VP 08What a dream team that would be. They would be unbeatable.
"Rice/Tancredo '08" has more credibility against the Hildabeast.
I wish I was as optimistic about these spineless "conservatives" as you are. Frankly, the main difference I see between MOST of our current crop of Congressional Republicans and the dems is that the dems will send us rocketing to hell at unheard of speeds, while the pubbies will send us there via the scenic route.
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