Dancin' DeLay: This Is the 'Real Tom'

America is getting to see a whole different side of Tom DeLay on Dancing with the Stars, and he wants you to know it's the real Tom DeLay. Maureen Dowd chats up the man once dubbed the “meanest man in Congress” and ponders the meaning of his transformation. “I’m being more feminine and a little prissy," he tells her in a chipper confessional. "My brain is telling my hips, ‘We don’t do that.’ It’s not like a speech or a press conference. This is exposing your soul.”

"It might be a sign of the apocalypse," Dowd writes, "a frilly Tom DeLay shimmying away from an indictment and onto Dancing. It’s certainly a blazing reminder that in our lowbrow-loving, no-attention-span culture, most any scoundrel can do the redemption tango simply by being a good sport." And speaking of tango, DeLay tells his new friend that the tango, up next in the competition, will be even more the real Tom DeLay: "Cheryl says the tango’s macho, arrogant, and aggressive, and I said, ‘That’s me.’"