After spending Glee’s first two seasons melting the hearts of viewers who only knew him as a host of Nickelodeon’s Guts and star of Yes, Dear, it seemed like Mike O’Malley was destined to take a more backseat role this season — until last night’s episode, when he announced he’d be running as a write-in congressional candidate against Sue Sylvester. In real life, O’Malley prefers coaching his three kids’ sports teams (he was on the way home from son Seamus’s soccer game as we spoke) to political grandstanding, and fills in his time between Glee tapings as a consulting producer and writer for Shameless. He still gamely chatted with Vulture about Burt’s upcoming season, and even offered us a political mix tape.
Okay. Ron Paul: “Tax Man.†Herman Cain: “Taillights Fade†by Buffalo Tom. I want Rick Perry’s song to be “Love Is a Battlefield,†’cause I just want him to sing about love. Barack Obama should actually do “One Wing†by Wilco. Let’s give him a modern song. Mitt Romney, he’s from Boston but he’s certainly not gonna sing “Dirty Waterâ€; how about “The Seeker†by the Who? Or maybe Mitt could sing Fleet Foxes, “Helplessness Blues.†I want to hear some “Pumped Up Kicks†by Foster the People from Michele Bachmann, one of the most catchy songs of the last three years. More people in this country need to be buying Wilco and Buffalo Tom and Foster the People. And bring back Pat Benatar. She danced around in a mummy outfit for that video and she looked good doin’ it.