Tom DeLay Dances Back Into the Limelight

tom delay

Who knew that Tom DeLay was such a dancing machine? The former House Republican leader has been selected as a contestant on the upcoming season of "Dancing With the Stars," joining cultural celebrities such as Grammy award winning singer Macy Gray and '70s icon Donny Osmond.

One thing is clear: the entire DeLay family is ecstatic about the Hammer's transformation to Dancing Machine.

"He's been working hard all summer trying to get in shape, improve his flexibility, endurance, etc. He's lost 12 lbs already!" daughter Dani DeLay Ferro, Dad's former campaign manager, said in a message to the Sleuth via Facebook. "He's taking this very very seriously and we are all sooooo excited! People probably don't know that he's a really good dancer!"

Daughter Dani said she's most excited "for America to get to know the funny, caring man that I've grown up with and worked for. They won't know what hit 'em!"

As Washington Post TV columnist Lisa de Moraes has reported, DeLay's involvement with "Dancing With the Stars" goes back to 2007, when he heavily lobbied the show's viewers to vote for the seemingly wholesome country singer Sara Evans. That all backfired on the Hammer when Evans quit the show in the midst of a nasty divorce in which she accused her husband of verbal abuse, alcoholism, watching pornography in their home and keeping photos of himself having sex with other women.

DeLay Ferro said the slimmed down former congressman, whose ironclad style of rule over House Republicans earned him the nickname "The Hammer," begins rehearsal tomorrow in Sugar Land, Texas, his hometown.

In a few weeks, Dad will relocate to Los Angeles, where the show is filmed. The first show airs Sept. 21.

"He'll stay there until he is voted off which, I hope, isn't till the November finale!" DeLay Ferro told us.