Tom DeLay, dancing with the bigots

Posted by Evan Derkacz at 9:00 AM on September 8, 2006.

In an innocuous-looking email promoting his pick on ABC's "Dancing With the Stars," Tom DeLay writes:

"Sara Evans has been a strong supporter of the Republican Party and represents good American values in the media... We have always been able to count on Sara for her support of the things we all believe in. Let's show Sara that same support."

The email continues with same old patter:

"We need to send a message to Hollywood and the media that smut has no place on television by supporting good people like Sara Evans."

But why go out of his way to promote Sara Evans? I mean, DeLay doesn't come out of his spider hole every day for any old Dancing with the Stars contestant, does he?

The answer may lie in Sara's husband, ultra-rightwing theocracy-supporting Craig L. Schelske -- failed Republican candidate and cute-as-a-button executive director of Americandestiny.com.

American Destiny is an organization that promotes a revisionist history of America's founding as a theocracy and dedicates itself to busting the "myth" of separation of church and state. In order to do so, it must use the discredited scholarship of one David Barton, who used to speak at "Christian Identity" conferences. In Kingdom Coming, Michelle Goldberg wrote:

...In the past [Barton] was embraced by the racist far right, addressing at least two Christian Identity gatherings. (Christian Identity maintains that Anglo-Saxons are the true children of Israel, while blacks are "mud people" and Jews are the spawn of Satan).

DeLay is also known to cavort with Barton who, incidentally, was hired by the RNC in 2004.

Welcome to Dancing with the Stars. Go ABC! Go. (TMZ)

Evan Derkacz is a New York-based writer and contributor to AlterNet.