Tom DeLay made his much-awaited (by TPM, at least) Dancing With The Stars debut last night, turning in a not-altogether-embarrassing rendition of the cha-cha-cha, with a lot of hip action.

DeLay, dressed in an all-brown outfit with sequined leopard-print trim on the vest, opened up "Wild Thing" by wailing on an air guitar and then lip-synced throughout the whole thing. His partner, Cheryl Burke, wore a skimpy red and leopard-print outfit -- not what you'd call "conservative."

He was stiff but not terrible, and the judges gave the pair a 16 out of a possible 30.

One of the judges, Carrie Anne Inaba, said the performance was "surreal" but told DeLay he has a "natural grace."

He even did an extra, entirely unsolicited ass-shake for the judges.

Watch:

As Burke (who we interviewed about the experience a few weeks ago) said on the show, "A lot of sexy hip shaking is not up his alley."

DeLay and Burke also danced a Viennese waltz.

In a recap of their rehearsals, DeLay seemed to be struggling, telling himself, "C'mon, DeLay."

"Going left for me is absolutely outrageous," he said, but added, "I'll vote with the Republicans and party with the Democrats."