Word: delayer
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...DeLay's motives seem less obvious. Since leaving Congress in June 2006, he's been running a political consultancy. Did someone counsel him that the path to elder statesmanship is best taken at a waltz? DeLay says he simply discussed the plan with his wife and daughter, both fans of the show, who urged him to go for it. "They said, 'Sure, why not? Let's do it.' " His only wider aim in participating, he insists, is to win. "I'm surprised people consider it unusual that a former politician would be on a dancing show," he says. "Politics...
Nevertheless, people - even some quite close to DeLay - are surprised. "Got a nonspecific hint that he would be doing something high-profile," says Richard Cullen, one of his legal advisers, when asked if he knew of DeLay's plans. "But I would never have guessed this." Republican strategist and former DeLay spokesman John Feehery was also shocked - but more that his ex-boss had been asked than that he accepted. "He likes to be in the middle of the action," Feehery says. "Politicians have this internal thing where they like to be the center of attention." DeLay doesn't deny...
...makes a difference that DeLay comes to the show as a fan. For many of the male contestants, the biggest stumbling block is what producers call the entourage factor: What will the guy's friends say? But DeLay had already outed himself when, in 2006, he e-mailed his supporters, urging them to vote for country star Sara Evans' "good American values" against Jerry Springer and his "smut" (to no avail, since Evans left the show voluntarily around the same time she announced her divorce). (See the top 10 skanky reality TV shows...
That experience didn't seem to sour DeLay, who has begun his DWTS campaign with such vigor, you'd think the cast was stocked with Democrats instead of subaltern celebrities with at least a decade on him. Like fellow Season 9 contestants TV actress Melissa Joan Hart and model turned merchandise mogul Kathy Ireland, he has a Twitter feed about his progress. (So far he has 1,845 followers, more than competitor Ashley Hamilton's 240 but fewer than Osbourne's 120,000.) "Headed to the studio for my first rehearsal and to meet my partner. Hoping...
Inevitably there are those who see DeLay's quick step as part of an image-rehabilitation plan. "He's a student of history. He knows historians will be writing about the Republican revolution, and he wants to get a fair shake with people," says Jim Backlin, a former House leadership aide under DeLay. "He wants to let the TV audience see what his friends do - that he's a decent guy with a sense of humor...