On the popular radio show A Prairie Home Companion this weekend, NPR star Garrison Keillor sang a different version of "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town." It had a slightly different melody, and mocked Newt Gingrich, without naming him. Keillor sang: "Don’t think a sense of style conceals your escapades / Don’t vote to impeach Bill Clinton while shacking up with Congressional aides." Gingrich was cheating on his second wife (with his eventual third wife) at that time in 1998.
Keillor also sang that Santa is watching for who is "beating up on" gays or minorities. There's nothing wrong with opposing physical violence or mean-spirited bullying -- but with NPR, you'd have to suspect Keillor is implying a broader argument about conservative arguments against gay marriage or "affirmative action." Keillor sang:
Don’t beat up on minorities, or folks with idiosyncracies
Santa Claus, he’s looking at you
Christians or intellectuals, artists or homosexuals
Santa will know it if you do
Keillor is hardly the person to make too much noise about adultery -- since he has enthusiastically participated in affairs -- and like Gingrich, has been married three times. He just hates conservatives who moralize against it. He's also not so wild about Christmas. He's going to Hawaii this year -- to hang out with Obama?
"This year we're going to Hawaii," he said, practically making the parishoners at Lake Wobegon Lutheran Church gasp in unison.
"It's a way of taking a vacation from Christmas. We'll be there with a few friends. We'll light a candle on Christmas Eve and sing 'Silent Night.' But we're doing something different. My daughter loves to swim."
