WASHINGTON – Pornographer Mark Kulkis says tonight’s presidential fund-raiser, which includes him and his date, XXX porn star Mary Carey, will make pop-culture history.

But the National Republican Congressional Committee seems more intent on using President Bush’s $2,500-a-plate speech to make political fund-raising history.

Congressional Republicans expect to add at least $23 million to their party campaign funds at the event featuring the president.

The National Republican Congressional Committee raised at least $14 million for House Republicans through the gala, while the National Republican Senatorial Committee took in $9 million.

At least 5,000 people were expected to attend the $2,500-per-ticket dinner at the Washington Convention Center.

The House GOP dinner donors include adult film executive Kulkis, who plans to take porn actress and former California gubernatorial candidate Carey, who says she will stage a fashion show and news conference to display her dinner outfit before the gala.

Meanwhile, White House spokesman Scott McClellan yesterday refused to answer questions about the attendance of the porn star and her boss at the presidential dinner.

WorldNetDaily’s White House correspondent, Les Kinsolving, asked McClellan about the controversy, but the spokesman deflected the questions, referring WND to the organization sponsoring the event, the National Republican Congressional Committee. Two weeks ago, McClellan said he hadn’t looked that far ahead in the president’s schedule and pleaded ignorance of the event.

Asked about the propriety of the Republican Party accepting $5,000 from a pornographer and the example such an appearance set for the moral climate of the nation, McClellan said: “I think you need to direct those questions to the committee itself.”

Kulkis, who says he was personally invited to the dinner, has been using the opportunity to promote his company, Kick A– Pictures, and the pornography industry.

The presence of two high-profile pornographers at an event to honor the president hasn’t concerned the organization hosting the event.

Carl Forti is communications director for the National Republican Congressional Committee, which raises funds for GOP congressional candidates.

Referring to Carey and Kulkis, Forti told WND: “They’ve paid their money. No matter what they do, the money is going to go to help elect Republicans to the House.”

The buxom Carey, 24, ran for California governor against Arnold Schwarzenegger on a platform that included taxing breast enhancements, making lap dances tax deductible, recruiting porn stars as “ambassadors of good will” and putting Web cams up in every room of the governor’s mansion.

Carey, who says she is a Christian who prays and reads her Bible every night, said she’s excited about the possibility of speaking personally with Bush.

“It would be an honor to meet him,” she told WND. “I’d like to talk to him about issues like freedom of speech and the crackdown on the adult industry. Maybe he can give me some political pointers.”

Last month, Carey was among five people arrested at a new strip club in a suburb of Tacoma, Wash. All were accused of violating the local adult-cabaret ordinance, some by getting too close to customers and others – including Carey – by touching themselves in a sexual manner, according to the Associated Press.

Kulkis, 40, says he’ll be representing the $10 billion porn industry as well as his own company at the fund-raiser. A native of Michigan, the English literature major turned pornographer says he’d be surprised, disappointed and upset if he were somehow turned away, but he doesn’t expect that to happen. He also serves as honorary chairman of the NRCC’s Business Advisory Council, a group which describes itself as a “small, prestigious group of conservative businessmen and women.”