You’ve got to love U.S. Rep. Jon Porter. He’s a man who speaks entirely in sound bites, but does it in such a charming, endearing way, hardly anybody pauses to question him.

Hardly anybody, that is. We at Various Things & Stuff are immune to his Jedi mind powers.

Take today, for example, when the Review-Journal’s Steve Tetreault asked Porter if he’s going to return the $25,000 he’s taken from indicted U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay. Porter responded by saying DeLay is innocent until proven guilty, and that if DeLay is convicted, Porter promised to return the cash.

Fair enough; DeLay, as Porter said, is entitled to his day in court, and if Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle can’t make his case, DeLay’s entitled to go free. (It’s unclear what will happen to him politically, since under House rules, he was forced to step down as majority leader after the indictment was handed up.)

But then Porter tried to take his magical spin-language one step too far, saying it would be wrong to link him to DeLay, since he’s proud of his 20-year record of political service.

See that? He’s proud of his record, which nobody has questioned, so we shouldn’t ask about his ties to DeLay, which plenty of people have questioned, including the Nevada State Democratic Party.

In addition to the usual knocks against Porter — that he’s taken $25,000 from DeLay and his PAC; that he donated $5,000 to DeLay’s legal defense fund; that he votes 94 percent of the time in lockstep with DeLay and other House leaders — let’s not forget a few other things.

• DeLay has personally come to Nevada to raise money for Porter, back in 2000 when Porter was running against U.S. Rep. Shelley Berkley.

• Although he won his seat in 2002 and defended it in 2004 with very comfortable margins, Porter is still on the DeLay-created list of 10 most vulnerable incumbents, which allowed him to raise an estimated $150,000 for his own re-election. And Porter got the nod despite other Republicans being in far more desperate straits. (Then again, at least one of those Republicans, U.S. Rep. Christopher Shays, opposed that rules change that Porter supported, and thus incurred DeLay’s wrath.)

• Porter voted for the changes to House ethics rules that would have allowed DeLay to stay in his leadership post even while under indicted. Republicans, including Porter, wisely reversed course on that and restored the rules. Thus, DeLay was forced to step down.

So why should we not link Porter — he of the proud 20 years of political service — to DeLay again?