Celebrity auctioneer DeLay brings down house with beaver double-entendres

“Who wants a beaver?” asked DeLay, whom attendees said looked happier and more relaxed than ever. Hoots and hollers followed.

The Hammer continued with lines such as, “Everybody likes beaver, even women” and, as a couple of people in the crowd recall, “The best thing about it, it’s a shaved beaver!” (Though two others, both of them DeLay supporters and protectors, said they think they remember DeLay saying it was “sheared beaver,” not “shaved beaver.”)

At one point, as the bidding went up, DeLay pointed in the crowd to Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) as he held up the fur vest and said, “Sen. Burr, they don’t have beaver like this down in North Carolina.”

Burr, according to his spokeswoman, got to the event late and “was not aware” that DeLay had impugned the beaver of North Carolina.