Tucker Dances Off Into the Night

September 15th, 2006 10:04 AM

Call him a shooting star. Like a meteor lighting a brilliant-but-too-brief trail across the night sky, Tucker Carlson is gone in a blaze of glory from Dancing With The Stars.

The end came shockingly fast, as viewers across the country voted by phone and decided Tucker was the celebrity they could most easily bear not to see again. And thus it was that on Wednesday, Carlson was the first to be voted off the dancing island. All of which is a shame, nay, a national tragedy when you consider that . . . we won't be seeing Tucker's lovely partner Elena Grinenko again any time soon.

Tucker had some fun at his own expense on his MSNBC show yesterday, even inviting on Dancing With The Stars judge Bruno Tonioli who had dealt him a rock-bottom score of 3. Tonioli raked Carlson for sitting on a chair for 20 of the 60 seconds of his routine. Tucker defended himself in self-deprecating fashion, suggesting he and his partner had concluded that "the less dancing I did, the better for everyone."

And so, adieu Tucker! But for those with a taste for conservatives on reality TV, look for re-runs of G. Gordon Liddy's heroic appearance on Celebrity Fear Factor!