Everybody Must Get Stoned

Roger L. Simon on Al Franken, the sequel:  “Come back, Aristophanes: Baldwin Tells Spitzer (!) the Actor’s ‘Interested’ in Political Run:”

Just when you thought black comedy was in decline… or maybe even decomposed…. it came lumbering back from the dead on CNN’s Parker Spitzer Show:

So unfolds the latest chapter in Alec Baldwin’s ongoing flirtation with public office: The “30 Rock” actor told CNN’s Eliot Spitzer that he’s “very interested” in a political run.

Of course, Baldwin knows there are plenty of obstacles in his way: He loves acting and his current state of New York is flooded with established political players.

“It’s something that I’m very, very interested in,” said Baldwin in an interview set to air Wednesday night. He said what he wants to see from elected leaders is “people who have not lost sight about what the middle class in this country is.” And, despite his fame and success, he says that “whatever I’ve accrued in my career doing that, it hasn’t changed me as a person.”

Alec hasn’t changed as a person? Okay, then, I’ve got a great idea for a campaign ad. How about this?

Or how ’bout Baldwin’s moment of Jeffersonian introspection on The Conan O’Brien Show in 1998:

I come back from Africa to stained dresses and cigars and this and impeachment. I am thinking to myself in other countries they are laughing at us twenty four hours a day and I’m thinking to myself if we were in other countries, we would all right now, all of us together, [starts to shout] all of us together would go down to Washington and we would stone Henry Hyde to death! We would stone him to death! [crowd cheers] Wait! Shut up! Shut up! No shut up! I’m not finished. We would stone Henry Hyde to death and we would go to their homes and we’d kill their wives and their children. We would kill their families. [stands up screaming] What is happening in this country? What is happening? UGHHH UGHHH!!!!”

I think once you’ve said Ughh Ughh, you’re ready for Washington.