Some of us may remember former Representative Tom Delay, affectionately known as “The Hammer” for his role as GOP whip in the Congress, as an aggressive, partisan operator.

In a move the proves that politics and game shows are alteregos, The Hammer has announced that he is auditioning for a place on TV’s “Dancing With the Stars”.  I haven’t decided whether I am more embarassed for him or the show.

This raises some very complex issues:

1. Will he be paired with a dancer of little fame or a Democrat with star power?
2. Will he make suggestive dance moves that would alienate the conservative right and delight the left leaning tangoistas? 
3. Will we be able to read into his dance what he thinks of health care reform by just how much he struts his 60+ year-old body around?
4. What if he is voted off? Will the right wing picket the show and accuse it of being un-American, commie and pro-health care reform?
5. Will sitting members of Congress be in the audience wildly cheering him on?  Will they neck dance?
6. Will Sarah Palin draw an example from this and audition to be a contestant on the Amazing Race?  I just realized how ironic that would be.
7. Will the GOP release a statement that The Hammer was in no way following the example of disgraced former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich?
8. Will The Hammer wear effete dancing shoes and tight sequined clothes, signalling a softening on gay issues?  Will John Ashcroft, our former US Attorney General and lounge lizard,  join him behind the piano with a Liberace candelabra on it?
9. Will Delay appear with Donny Osmond, a famous Mormon, and will that give Mitt Romney the needed boost to go for the 2012 GOP Presidential nomination?

(P.S.: 40andYoungerForNow — is this less depressing?  Tom Delay today was a gift.)