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Well, not exactly. You guessed it was Dancing with the Stars all along, right? Yup, The Hammer is going to be trading in his implements of political suasion for some dancing shoes. I’ve never watched the show that America seems entranced by. But watching a washed up former Congressional leader on his way to trial on political corruption charges might turn me into a viewer.
Tom has made some interesting career choices: first he was an exterminator, then a Republican hit man, and now a washed up pol seeking to extend his shelf life. I suppose I should be happy Tom’s on TV dancing up a storm rather than slashing Democrats, which was his last incarnation.
There were a few unintentionally humorous bits in the N.Y. Times’ TV critic’s report on this story:
It turns out Mr. DeLay “watches the show all the time,” Mr. Green [Dancing's producer] said. “He likes dancing with his wife, and his daughter is a professional country-and-western dancer.”
You mean line dancing can be a PROFESSION?? I suppose it’s a better and more honest one than being a corrupt, power-hungry politician who helped drive your Party into political oblivion.
One thing you’ve got to give Dancing though, at least this time they chose a recently washed up Republican politician. Apparently, at one time they were scraping even lower in the barrel:
Mr. Green said the show had previously given serious thought to former Vice President Dan Quayle. He declined to say whether Mr. Quayle had been formally invited to participate.
Quayle couldn’t spell, could barely string together articulate sentences. He was so wooden I can’t even imagine the man dancing. You wonder what goes through the heads of these producers.
Given the above choices, this claim from the producer really broke the laughometer:
He…said the show wanted to steer clear of any partisan posturing. “We don’t want to get into that morass,” he said.
Posturing? Who said hiring two of the most right-wing American politicians to grace the American political stage in the past 20 years was “partisan posturing?” I guess this tells you a lot about what their audience demographic is, huh? But not to worry, the producer’s dream booking is Bill Clinton. It makes perfect sense in a totally weird way. But they’ll have to wait until he becomes a true has-been like DeLay. Right now, he’s still somebody especially thanks to Hillary’s role as secretary of state.
You have to admit Quayle in his days had some considerable (if unintentional) entertainment value, like only Sarah Palin since.
Really, who cares about the political weirdness of a dancer in a TV show? I would many more unfortunately still active politicians followed DeLay’s example, off into a show I don’t have to watch.