WASHINGTON  The party sponsored by the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States to celebrate the Senate majority leader, Bill Frist, at the New York Yacht Club was one of the more over-the-top events of the Republican National Convention in 2004, featuring 10 bars and more than a half-dozen special vintage Scotches. The group held a similar soiree that year for Senator Tom Daschle, the minority leader, at the Democratic Convention in Boston.

A broad new Congressional lobbying and ethics law that took effect on New Year’s Day bans lawmakers from being honored at such events. But that hasn’t stopped the council, which lobbies for the liquor industry, from exploiting a loophole that allows it to give similar parties at this year’s political conventions  in Denver and Minneapolis  as long as they do not name any elected official as an “honoree,” though many will be invited.

It is just one example of the creative interpretations of the new rules.

Congressional Democrats like to boast that the rules, in the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007, will go a long way toward ending the influence-peddling that has become common in American politics. But writing a strong law does not necessarily mean that strict interpretation and robust enforcement will follow.

One much-ballyhooed provision in the new law is being delayed indefinitely. Carrying out the requirement, that lawmakers disclose the names of lobbyists who “bundle,” or gather campaign contributions, is being held up by a deadlock in the Senate over nominees to the Federal Election Commission.