HOUSTON — House Majority Leader Tom DeLay returned Saturday to the embrace of his home turf and core supporters, capping a convention of the National Rifle Assn. by telling the organization's leaders that guns were a crucial instrument of keeping the peace and preserving the American way of life.
"It isn't just our homes and selves that need defending," he said Saturday night in the convention's keynote speech. "It is our freedom.... God gave it. The Constitution preserves it. And together we will defend it."
The NRA gave DeLay an antique-style, flintlock rifle. He held it above his head and echoed the words former NRA President Charlton Heston famously shouted when given his own commemorative gun: "From my cold, dead hands."
DeLay did not directly address the ethics and other controversies swirling around him.
The Texas Republican's appearance represented the high point of a convention where politicians and gun rights advocates pulled few punches, berating Democrats, gun control advocates, the United Nations and the media, among others.
President Bush delivered a message by videotape to NRA leaders as 3,000 people dined on steak with cognac sauce. He pledged to fight new gun control provisions and called on Congress to pass a measure that would grant gun manufacturers and dealers immunity from some lawsuits. The measure's backers say it would protect companies from frivolous lawsuits; critics say it would sacrifice public safety to reward the powerful gun lobby.
DeLay's appearance attracted about 200 protesters to a convention center in downtown Houston. They held signs that read: "Fight Corruption; Dump DeLay" and chanted: "This is what democracy looks like."
Several made it clear that they were not here to protest the NRA, but DeLay. One of his constituents, 51-year-old Jackie Rico't, a chemical company worker from Seabrook, Texas, held a sign that read: "2nd Amendment Yes; Tom DeLay No."
"I'm not against the NRA," Rico't said. "But DeLay is bankrupt -- morally and ethically. We need to take our district back."
In Texas, three political fundraisers with ties to DeLay were indicted on campaign-finance charges and his fundraising operation is under investigation. In Washington, he faces ethics charges regarding his relationship with lobbyists and questions about the relatives that are on his campaign payroll.
