Alec Baldwin, no longer the furious father, ponders public office

Actor Alec Baldwin, who announced he was going to leave the United States if George W. Bush was elected president and then quietly changed his mind, is now talking about entering American politics himself.

The 49-year-old actor isn't really an archconservative television executive. But he does play one on TV, on the NBC show "30 Rock."

Here's another surprise for a Hollywood person: Baldwin actually has supported liberal causes in real life.

"There's other things I want to do [besides acting]," Baldwin tells Morley Safer in an interview Sunday on CBS' "60 Minutes."

"I mean, in a matter of weeks, I'm going to be 50. There's no age limit on running for office, to a degree. Something I might do one day."

Two years ago, the Long Island native told the New York Times Magazine he thought he would like to be governor of New York. Asked if he was qualified to run for the office, he compared....

...himself to another actor-turned-politician. No, not Ronald Reagan.

"That's what I hate about Schwarzenegger," he said. "His only credentials are that he ran a fitness program under some bygone president. ... I'm Tocqueville compared to Arnold Schwarzenegger."

One challenge that would confront a Baldwin candidacy about 11 seconds after it's announced is that voicemail message that got played everywhere last year during Baldwin's nasty public divorce from actress Kim Basinger. On the widely-distributed tape message left for his 11-year-old daughter, Baldwin called her a "thoughtless little pig."

Oh, and happy birthday.

Of course, given the recent sexual weirdness out of Albany this year -- what with Gov. Eliot Spitzer and the high-priced hooker named Kristen, and new Gov. David Patterson and his wife Michelle announcing their affairs with other people, not to mention his past drug use, which we just did -- a simple angry voicemail may now seem pretty tame to voters. Maybe even boring with no sexy MySpace photos.

Thank goodness, Baldwin assures Safer on Sunday that, like almost all Hollywood celebrities who get involved in embarrassing situations, he has learned from the experience.

"If you go through the things I have gone through with the media like this thing with my daughter, there's only one thing that comes to mind initially: that is how my daughter must have felt to have this played out in public," Baldwin says.

"The second thing I realize," Baldwin adds, "is: you can pretty much bet all you own that I would never leave another voicemail message for my daughter that wasn't just like something out of a Rodgers and Hammerstein score."

-- Matthew Hay Brown

Matthew Hay Brown writes for the Swamp of the Chicago Tribune's Washington bureau.

Comments

[wallace]

If he runs for office and wins, I'm moving out of the country.

Not really, right Alec? We love ya, ya big two-faced hypocrite!

[Greg]

this is nothing new, at one point Alec was considering a US Senate run in NY state some years ago and started to get more involved in party politics (as in behind the scenes party committee meetings and such) to learn more about what it would take to run...can't remember but it was a while back.

[Franky]

I hope sells that gun and buys some clothes before running. I'm not sure a naked gun totting crazy guy would have much appeal outside of middle america & hollywood....oh wait...He would win. ;)

[Winghunter]

"There are people who would rather choke than go see my movies. They write me letters all the time."

"Remember, sex is like a Chinese dinner. It ain't over 'til you both get your cookie."

"To be in this business and have tremendous integrity and only make distinguished choices is very tough. "

"I feel I'm two people: I have my interest in acting and I have a lot of other political interests I'd like to pursue."

“Sometimes, you know, the president is a father-like figure in American society, to most Americans, even today, no matter how cynical we've become. And people don't want to think that daddy's a bum all the time. They don't want to think that Daddy's a liar, a cheat and a fraud.”

"At the core of liberalism is the spoiled child - miserable, as all spoiled children are, unsatisfied, demanding, ill disciplined, despotic, and useless. Liberalism is the philosophy of sniveling brats." - P.J. O'Rourke

[MARY PAGELS]

I HOPE YOU READ THIS ALEC BALDWIN!

I THINK YOUR BRAZEN HONESTY IS A BREATH OF FRESH AIR BUT BEWARE... HONESTY IS NOT APPRECIATED IN WASHINGTON AND THEY WILL EAT YOU ALIVE UNLESS YOU PUT ON YOUR TOUGHEST GAME FACE. I BELIEVE YOU KNOW HOW TO DO THAT SINCE YOU HAVE SURVIVED HOLLYWOOD SO WELL...

AND BY THE WAY... FROM ONE FELLOW DIVORCEE TO ANOTHER, I DON'T BLAME YOU ONE BIT FOR CALLING YOUR DAUGHTER A THOUGHTLESS LITTLE PIG. IT SEEMS LIKE YOUR EX WIFE WAS THE REAL PIG ALLOWING THE PRIVATE VOICE MAIL TO BE BROADCAST ALL OVER THE COUNTRY. IF YOU ASK ME SHE IS THE HORRIBLE PARENT BY NOT STOPPING HER LAWYER FROM RELEASING THE TAPE. SHAME ON HER. SHE IS AN EMBARASSMENT TO MOTHERHOOD.

WELL, I HOPE YOU RUN... CONSIDER MICHIGAN. I WOULD VOTE FOR YOU! YOU CAN'T DO MUCH WORSE THAN OUR PRESENT MAYOR OF DETROIT OR OUR CANADIAN GOVERNOR.

HANG IN THERE!!!

MEP