Tom's travails.

HOUSE majority leader Tom DeLay is now officially "dogged by ethics questions," a description he can add to the others routinely applied to him by the media: "controversial" and "rightwing." Conservatives must be willing to make cold-blooded calculations about their leaders, since the cause is bigger than any one man. But DeLay has not committed any crimes or ethics violations that merit his ouster. Nor has his effectiveness been so diminished that the Republican caucus would be better off without him--even if he has sustained damage from the drip-drip of allegations against him.

The chief reason the Democrats and the press are ganging up on DeLay is obvious: He is an effective leader of the House Republican majority, and they hope to do damage to the GOP caucus and agenda by taking him out, on the model of former Speaker Newt Gingrich. After all, many of the offenses DeLay is being accused of--taking foreign trips funded by outside groups, attending events with lobbyists-are committed by every congressman on Capitol Hill.

There are three sets of allegations against DeLay, and it is worth going through each one, since so much of the case against DeLay depends on piling up as many charges as possible to create the impression of irredeemable corruption. The first has to do with foreign trips. One was a trip to Seoul funded by the Korea U.S. Exchange Council, a group that registered as a foreign agent days before the trip. It is against House rules to accept trips from a registered foreign agent. But there was no way for DeLay to know the group had registered, and other Republicans and Democrats--including a Nancy Pelosi staffer--had gone on similar trips sponsored by the group. DeLay disclosed the trip to the Ethics Committee, a sign he believed it was within the rules. Another trip came courtesy of a conservative outfit called the National Center for Public Policy Research. It turns out that the bill for that travel was indirectly picked up by gambling interests represented by the disgraced GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who accompanied DeLay on the trip. It's against the rules for a congressman to accept a trip paid for by a lobbyist. But DeLay denies knowing that the center wasn't really paying. Critics link the trip with a DeLay vote against an anti-gambling bill a few months later. But other members of Congress who generally oppose gambling, as DeLay does, also voted against the legislation, for technical reasons.

The second set of allegations was handled by the House Ethics Committee. The committee dismissed two charges made by outgoing Democratic representative Chris Bell having to do with DeLay's relationship with an energy company called Westar and his staff's contacting of the Federal Aviation Administration when Texas Democrats were fleeing the state by air to avoid voting on a redistricting plan. It also dismissed a charge having to do with DeLay's strong-arming of Republican representative Nick Smith to try to get him to vote for the prescription-drug bill. The committee did warn DeLay to be more careful, the "admonishment" that has played in the media as an official sanction, although it wasn't.

Finally, a Democratic prosecutor in Texas has indicted associates of DeLay for alleged fundraising abuses related to a PAC founded by DeLay, Texans for a Republican Majority. The prosecutor has a reputation for politicized indictments, including a meritless one years ago against Republican Kay Bailey Hutchison. No evidence presented at trial has directly tied DeLay to any of the alleged illegal practices at the PAC, which the prosecutor says involved funneling corporate contributions to Texas legislative candidates in violation of state campaign-finance law.

Conservative groups have rallied around DeLay, as they should when he is being unfairly attacked. But the majority leader should know that even if conservatives reject the Democratic effort to smear and oust him, they are disillusioned to find Republican leaders so comfortable with the perks of power. You can choose your friends, and DeLay's supporters cringe to see sleazy insiders like Jack Abramoff profiting from their relationship with him. It is notable that DeLay's lobbying of Representative Smith was part of an effort to pass a massive new entitlement that not too long ago would have turned DeLay's stomach. So, by all means, let's defend Tom DeLay, but let's hope that we will see more of the old conservative insurgent Tom DeLay.