They'll Love Him In D.C. — He Blew Up Baltimore in "Sum of All Fears"

You have to wonder what it must've been like back in the day when famous people with no qualifications didn't commonly hold political office. In 1935, when Missouri Democratic political boss Tom Pendergast needed somebody to run for the U.S. Senate, did he hope a movie star would move into his state to give him a candidate? No, he asked a Jackson County commissioner by the name of Harry S Truman to run for the seat, and we strongly recommend you take the time to look up what happened after that. Now fast foward to the year 2006 and the coming Senate race in The Old Dominion — Democrats can't count on their party's NASCAR-loving secret weapon, Gov. Mark Warner, to oppose the Republican Sen. George Allen, who's running for reelection. So they need somebody. Who should they pick? Well, gosh, Ben Affleck might buy a home near Charlottesville. How about him? Yeah, picture it: Sen Gigli. All this comes from the WaPo, by the way, which has debuted a new gossip feature that definitely has bloggers talking. What they're saying about the Affleck item, though, is predictably varied. PunditGuy sneers: "Teeth! Sparkly eyes! Box office draw! Yeah baby, that's what I'm talkin' 'bout. And Matt Damon can be First Lady! Wow, what a winning ticket!" Naked Villainy would remind everyone that Affleck campaigned for Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, whoever that is, and speculates that the political bug might've bitten Affleck. For her part, Wonkette just welcomes the WaPo to the gossip game, which, as we all know, can never have enough participants.

Posted by Philip Ewing at September 28, 2005 11:01 AM

Category: Celebs