[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/07/21/art.ladygaga0720.gi.jpg caption="At Tuesday morning's weekly GOP conference meeting, Republicans were shown a video parody of the Lady Gaga hit 'Just Dance.'"]WASHINGTON (CNN) - Politics may make for strange bedfellows - but even for this town, this may be the oddest couple to ever make beautiful music together: House Republicans...and pop diva Lady Gaga.
At Tuesday morning's weekly GOP conference meeting, Republicans were shown a clip of a video parody of the Lady Gaga hit, "Just Dance" that replaces the popular song's refrain with "Just Tax."
The parody video was developed by Peter Cowman, a 23-year-old who just graduated from the University of Washington in Seattle, outside Rep Dave Reichert's district. A spokeswoman for Reichert said the congressman wanted to show his colleagues the video to encourage them to get young people involved using new media, and noted his district is home to a cluster of technology companies.
"He wanted them to encourage the youth in their district, and share the message on a level that young people can relate to," Reichert's spokeswoman told CNN.
Asked about the video, House Republican Conference Chairman Mike Pence, R-Ind, laughed and said "it's part of the Pence youth initiative."
Pence admitted that very few members were familiar with the original Lady Gaga song.
I am slightly confused by this article – is Lady Gaga supporting this? Or is this another case of Republicans using musical artists' intellectual property without proper permission?
the GOP still thinks obama won because of his IMAGE and has nothing to do with the immense failures the republicans inflicted upon this nation. THATS why michael steele is the head of the GOP and they tried to push bobby jindal right after obama won, but he was AWEFUL with his speech so he dissapeared quick! THATS why Palin was their choice for a VP. their constituants are easily fooled so they are using the same evangelical, no logic, tactics to gain supporters. now they are doing THIS to reach young people! look NOBODY is BECOMING a republican. if you voted for bush twice and you arent ashamed and cant admit you made a mistake then you will always be a republican. but the GOP will not be converting anybody anytime soon.
Amazing to see the mighty right wing trolling for any hope to save their
outdated way of thinking. I love to see the hi and mighty curse and swear like gutter trash they really are. Wake up from your elitist fairytale and join the human race! Supid is what stupid does and you've shown your true colors!
Wow just wow. Republicans have so much hate inside them. How do you expect to progress with such horrible attitudes?
Pathetic, Lame, just plain Strange
Just when you thought the GOP couldn't possibly get further out of touch...
Isn't this Weird Al Yankovic's thing? The GOP are so far behind they think they're first.
Yeah.... Ummmm CNN... that means Lady Gaga isn't in on it.
Yeah. NOT in on it. Maybe.... right.... you could edit that. Yeah.
Pretty much dead wrong there CNN. Yeah.
So much for the change,,,,,,
It's business as usual for the DUMOcrats...
TAX and SPEND
Jerry American
what are you talking about? you cant tell it was targeted to republicans?! i mean i know republicans, especially ones that call obama MAU, aren't too clever, but come on! grow up!
Wow...more wonderful ladies to join the Republican party! I am sure Palin will not feel so lonely.
A Dem and loving this article.
Desperate republican's. But entertaining to see their sad attempts to reach out to today's youth. I hope they keep using these tactics because I'm sure all the young voters will see just how freaking "cool" it is to be a republican. Not.
The title of this article implies that Lady Gaga is a supporter of the Republican party, but when reading the article, it seems more like she has no affiliation whatsoever. It seems that someone has just arbitrarily chosen one of her songs to parody and the story is being slanted to sound like she is choosing to be an ambassador for Republicans. Am I wrong here?
Remember – Brittany Spears was the youth voice for Bush & Cheney. What a joke. Good luck with this GOP!
This parody of a LG song, along with Steele's awesome street cred and talk of life in the hizzle and how everyone in teh GOP wears their hats – the GOP should be bustling with wide eyed youth like the the nearly 40 year old, racist leader of the 'young' republicans. A brave new party indeed!
i think lady gaga is a good addition. this was sanford and ensign may be able to carry on with their so called conservative family values....
They must really be desperate.
Im sure Lady Gaga is not happy about them using her song. She is EVERYTHING NOT Republican.
"Wow. Another discussion thread. And another string of liberal posters that CNN 'moderates' to outnumber other viewpoints 99 to 1."
Couldn't it just be that there are more Democratic posters than Republicans? As a collective, Democrats are more educated than those that identify as Republicans (statistical fact). Democrats in general are more informed and more likely to read the news – hence there are going to be more posts by Democrats. Paranoid much?
Hey Repukes,
Don't you have more important things to work on? Oh, never mind. We have the majority in both houses. We don't need you anymore.
And judging from your behavior lately, I think you realize that.
Gee I thought that was Matt Damon singing. LOL
The problems the US is having are beyond political parties. Too bad none of the parties get that. Our Fore Fathers must be rolling over in their graves, wondering when citizens will revolt and start a revolution like they did, in order to get this country back on track!
I cant wait until Lady Gaga, a strong supporter of gay rights and other "evil liberal" social issues, speaks out against the GOP use of her song.
It seems the GOP always get in trouble misusing songs like this... didnt they get some "cease and desist" warnings from some musicians during the campaign for using their music without permission?
GAWD, the majority of the dufocrats posting on here as per usual only see what they want to see. They see an attempt by a GOP congressman at getting the young ppl in his district to care about government. They view this as a desperate, last ditch effort and ridicule him as being a day late and a dollar short.
WHAT REALLY happened is some geek fresh out of college, probably a Graphics Design major, without permission most likely, takes a song (cuz he hasnt had an original idea since he was born) changes one word (ooooooh wow) and throws it on the internet. A congressman sees an opportunity to connect with younger voters and jumped on it. If anyone should be ridiculed here its CNN for putting 1) a misleading headline on the story 2) blatantly showing their political favoritism and 3) just printing plain old trash.
Learn to look through the mud ppl.
nice outfit
Jerry American,
Hey Einstein–folks are attaching the the GOP to this story not because of taxes but because the article clearly states it was a Republican effort to reach younger people as opposed to the dying white guys currently composing your party.
Genius. If you can't be smart, be quiet.