The Once and Future Big Enchilada

Hearing DeLay's description of Texas prosecutor Ronnie Earle, Robertson asked: "Can't they bring charges against him for prosecutorial misconduct? This does seem to be egregious."

It was time for Robertson to wrap up the interview. "You're a hero to the conservatives in this country, and a lot of people are with you," he said.

DeLay had one more thing to say. "Can I plug a book?" he asked Robertson. "Jerry Bridges wrote a book called 'Trusting God' that takes you through this kind of adversity and teaches you so many things, and I just want to thank Jerry Bridges for that book."

Robertson is no stranger to the strains of public life (see Chavez, Hugo, assassination of, Aug. 22). "I want people to pray for you in this time of difficulty," he instructed.

DeLay's allies, while showing the requisite support of their embattled leader, are mostly avoiding full-throated defenses and unqualified proclamations of innocence. "We must all remember that in this country you are innocent until proven guilty," said the conservative Family Research Council's mild statement of support for DeLay.

The conservative radio crowd is not so circumspect. When DeLay called in to Tony Snow's Fox News show Thursday morning, the sympathetic host said that Earle violated legal ethics and asked: "Do you think he could or should be disbarred for this?" Probing deeper, Snow wondered: "Have any Democrats come to you on the q.t. and said I'm embarrassed by this?"

When DeLay called syndicated radio host Mike Gallagher that same morning, the conservative told the congressman "it's important for you to know how much support you continue to have." Gallagher, author of "Surrounded by Idiots: Fighting Liberal Lunacy in America," read DeLay an Ann Coulter quote that "the party that's now celebrating and popping champagne corks over Tom DeLay's indictment . . . worships at the altar of the president who was getting oral sex in the Oval Office on Easter Sunday."

"Ha, ha," DeLay answered.

Gallagher then exonerated DeLay. "You know, you're either going to have the charge dropped or you're going to be acquitted," he said. "That's not the issue."

"Right," DeLay confirmed.

Closing the interview, Gallagher, from his New York studio, showed DeLay the love he is not getting much in Washington. "You're going to make it, my friend," he said.