Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) has made big news with the announcement that he’ll be on the upcoming season of Dancing In The Stars. But believe it or not, this is not his first encounter with the show.
Back in 2006, months after he’d resigned from Congress, DeLay sent out an e-mail to his supporter list, calling on them to vote in that current season of Dancing for country singer Sara Evans, who is a vocal supporter of the Republican Party, and whose husband was a GOP fundraiser and had been an unsuccessful candidate for Congress. DeLay framed this cause as part of the culture war — targeting that nasty liberal contestant Jerry Springer:
Sara Evans has been a strong supporter of the Republican Party and represents good American values in the media. From singing at the 2004 Republican Convention to appearing with candidates in the last several election cycles, we have always been able to count on Sara for her support of the things we all believe in … One of her opponents on the show is ultra liberal talk show host Jerry Springer. We need to send a message to Hollywood and the media that smut has no place on television by supporting good people like Sara Evans.
Ultimately, DeLay’s plan didn’t work out. Evans ended up quitting the show due to a messy divorce, citing frequent adultery by her husband. Springer lasted for seven weeks on the show — longer than Evans, it turned out — and was eventually eliminated through the natural means of the contest.
Now that DeLay himself is a contestant, who knows what kind of mayhem he could get into?
