Pelosi later said the link was a mistake. "That connection should never have been there," she said, adding that she had some sympathy for DeLay and his family. "But I even feel sadder," she said, "for the American people who've had their lives affected by the culture of cronyism and corruption that exists in Washington, D.C., because of the impact on their lives, because of a special-interest agenda in Washington, D.C., at the expense of the middle class in America."

Some Democratic strategists said DeLay's fight was taking a toll on the image of the Republican Party, particularly when viewed together with a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation into stock sales by the Senate majority leader, Bill Frist of Tennessee, and the inquiry into the leak of a CIA officer's identity.

"It all feeds into the public's perception that whatever is going on, there is a strong whiff of illegality," said Peter Hart, a Democratic pollster.

But Republicans said Democrats were miscalculating if they were counting on the DeLay case to add to their numbers in Congress.

"If Democrats want to run ads in districts around the country that are focused on Tom DeLay, it will be a banner year for Republicans," said Carl Forti, a spokesman for the Republican Congressional Campaign Committee. "If they want to talk about Tom DeLay and I am talking about how their candidate raised taxes in the state legislature, we win."