Assemblyman Chuck DeVore’s sense of humor is well-established here (see the Simpsonized portrait of him and his family that he made above), but when he recently decided to twist up classic-rocker Don Henley’s “The Boys of Summer” to do a send-up of President Obama even he didn’t realize what he’d start. Instead of mixing it up with Obama, the Republican senatorial candidate’s in a showdown with Henley. And he’s loving every second of it.

If the lefty Henley thinks he’s going to get the better of the mischievous DeVore he doesn’t realize who’s going to get the last laugh. My bet’s on DeVore — he’s slinging that shot like David these days with nothing to lose since no other Republican has had the guts yet to take on liberal Goliath Barbara Boxer.

Here’s how it all started. DeVore and Justin Hart, his partner in new-media crime, cooked up “After the Hope of November is Gone” sung to the tune of “Boys of Summer” and YouTubed it.

“When we first put it together I was joking with (Hart), wouldn’t it be funny if Don Henley engaged on this because it’s pretty well-known he’s a left-wing activist, “DeVore said. “His lyrics took on Ronald Reagan back in the day and he’s pursued legal action in the past to prevent Republicans from using his songs at conventions.”

Yesterday, while up in Davis giving a speech, DeVore got a notice on his iPhone telling him there was an issue with the video. An hour later he was notified it was pulled for a “copyright infringement” complaint from a “third party.” The third party was Henley.

DeVore started chronicling it on Facebook (where I noticed it). You can’t buy this kind of publicity and it’s a self-perpetuating story. Watch, as this trickles out and DeVore raises the stakes with more planned Henley parodies, you’ll see this story go viral. And all of it free publicity for his campaign.

And DeVore appears to be on solid ground legally. The courts have given wide latitude to parody. Ironically, DeVore says he thinks he can find shelter behind the case involving 2 Live Crew’s parody of the Roy Orbison song, “Pretty Woman.” Chuck DeVore and Luke Skywalker (no, not that Luke Skywalker — I mean Luther Campbell). First, Hammer and now Uncle Luke? What’s the world coming to?

I told Chuck about the old Mojo Nixon song “Don Henley Must Die,” so he googled it and we both cracked up as the Assemblyman read the lyrics. Then he posted the lyrics on his Facebook.

This isn’t over by a longshot.

“I think we need to do three or four more parodies based on his work,” DeVore said. “We’re going to have some fun with this. That’s how we get our message out.”

Chuck says he’d love to just write more academic position papers on the issues of importance facing us, but if this sort of tomfoolery gets attention then what the hell…

“This has been a fascinating lesson and really a humble lesson for someone who loves public policy to be engaging in these sorts of things and getting far more interest,” DeVore said. “But if you want to be a stodgy, old-line politician and lose then good, knock yourself out. But if you want to engage with the people on fun stuff like this then you’ll enjoy better success.”

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