Morality and ethics, it’s often said, are in the eye of the beholder. Rarely has the truth of that saying been more unflatteringly demonstrated than in the relationship between House Republican Majority Leader Tom DeLay and the organized conservative lobby within the GOP.

To hear its apologists tell it, the conservative right is the keeper of the country’s conscience on things moral and ethical. Not like those loose-living, low-life moral relativists who call themselves Democrats. It’s a noble chore these “movement” conservatives have assigned themselves: nothing less than the defense of purity in the public square, and in some cases the bedchamber, too.

That being the case, it beggars understanding why they’d rush to the defense of DeLay, a serial ethics sinner, when even many of his colleagues in Congress fear he can’t pass the smell test.

Could it be they’re really more committed to conservative politics than to political purity as they pretend?

Three times last year, the House Ethics Committee, Republicans as well as Democrats, admonished DeLay. His offenses include, among other things, browbeating Washington’s K Street lobby firms to hire only Republicans if they want a hearing on Capitol Hill and putting the bite on energy companies for campaign money even as the House was considering energy legislation. Meanwhile, he’s under investigation in Texas where three of his political associates already have been indicted for alleged illegal use of corporate cash. (He tried to get the House GOP to change its rules to let him stay in power even if he’s indicted.)

Not to put too fine a point on it, but DeLay is not Mr. Clean. Does that bother folks at such conservative bastions as the Heritage Foundation, the American Conservative Union and the grandly styled Family Research Council? Over the weekend, spokesmen for each of these institutions called on conservatives around the country to rally behind DeLay.

To hear them tell it, ol’ Tom’s troubles are all the work of Democrats and a damnable liberal news media. Sound familiar?

David Keene, chairman of the American Conservative Union, spoke for the bunch when he told assembled conservatives, “If we’re a serious movement, we cannot allow one of our own to be attacked.”

Tony Perkins of the socially conservative Family Research Council charged that DeLay’s in hot water only because of “his effectiveness” in leading conservatives to power in Washington.

He’s got that partially right. DeLay, an adroit user of the carrot as well as the stick he’s more famous for, is one of the most effective congressional leaders of the last generation. And leaders are a target in these more partisan times. But that isn’t the only reason he’s in a squeeze. By choosing to live on the ethical edge, DeLay has handed Democrats (and the independent “watchdog” groups that prowl Washington these days) the weapons to wound him. He acts as if nobody’s watching.

DeLay’s defenders don’t bother to deny the ethics allegations against him. They can’t; they’re right there in the public record. Instead, they attack Democrats in general and liberals and the news media in particular, even falsely. For example, Becky Dunlop, a Heritage vice president, told the Washington Post that the charges against DeLay could be leveled against the Democratic leaders in Congress, Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada and Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California.

Oh, really? If so, then why haven’t they? The Senate and House Ethics Committees are bipartisan. But DeLay has poisoned the ethics process by purging the House committee of Republicans who voted to admonish him and replacing them with stooges who support him, even contributing money to his defense fund.

It’s worth noting that while the institutional conservatives, the “movement” types outside Congress, have rushed to his defense, DeLay’s pals in the GOP House and Senate are keeping a discreet distance from him, or more. Rep. Chris Shays, a moderate Republican from Connecticut, said Sunday DeLay should surrender his leadership job. Even Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, one of the most conservative GOP members on Capitol Hill, told television interviewers Sunday that DeLay must “explain” his actions.

The “movement” conservatives, who with their social and even religious agenda have affixed themselves to the Bush Republican Party (to the Bushies’ advantage so far), need no explanation from DeLay. For in the end, they care little about his ethics so long as he’s their ticket to power in Washington. How’s that for hypocrisy?