God help this country if this is true. The sad and pathetic thing is, there’s little to no doubt in my mind that he could get elected if he ever did choose to run for office. And he’s apparently thinking over the possibility.

Emmy Award winner Alec Baldwin is eyeing a post-acting career that could take him off a Hollywood soundstage into the halls of Congress.

Baldwin, who currently stars in the NBC comedy “30 Rock,” told Playboy magazine that he is seriously considering running for Congress. But he acknowledged his opponents would have plenty of fodder to use against him.

“I’ll put it this way,” he told the magazine. “The desire is there; that’s one component. The other component is opportunity.”

A native New Yorker, Baldwin said he has been approached by an unnamed Democratic law firm who wanted him to run for governor of Ohio, and he has also considered moving to New Jersey or Connecticut to run for office. “I’d love to run against Joe Lieberman,” Baldwin said of the Independent Democratic senator who is no favorite of the liberal wing of the Democratic Party. But Baldwin dismissed the idea, saying “It’s all fantasy.”

In the interview, he emphasized his New York roots, and noted the unpredictable nature of politics, citing Gov. Eliot Spitzer and Sen. Hillary Clinton’s resignations.

He also asked hypothetical questions about the future of Sen. Chuck Schumer, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and Rep. Tim Bishop.

“How much longer will Chuck Schumer stay as senator? After 2013 Bloomberg will be gone. What happens then? Do I run for Congress on Long Island? What’s Tim Bishop going to do? He represents my district. People get sick, die. They’re offered lucrative deals and want to cash in and make money for their retirement. People misstep,” he said. “Unfortunately, an opportunity for me may mean bad things for someone else. I don’t wish that.”

So, he doesn’t necessarily wish that bad things would happen to New York politicians forcing them out of office, but if they do, well then hey, that works out great for him, huh?

The interview ended with him stating that political opponents would have ample material to use against him. He cites his work on Saturday Night Live. Seriously — people will apparently say he shouldn’t be in office because of his SNL skits. This guy is seriously delusional.

I have plenty of thoughts on why he’s unfit for office, and not one of them are relevant to Baldwin’s time on SNL. Let’s go down the list, shall we?

There was his appearance on Late Night with Conan O’Brien, where Baldwin said the following:

“If we were in other countries, we would all right now, all of us together, all of us together would go down to Washington and we would stone Henry Hyde to death! We would stone him to death!… We would stone Henry Hyde to death and we would go to their homes and we’d kill their wives and their children.”

Henry Hyde, of course, was a pro-life Republican congressman from Illinois, and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Bush, the highest national honor a civilian can receive. Hyde admitted to having a long-term affair in his youth, of course immediately causing him to be labeled a HYPOCRITE!!!!! by Democrats. He died in 2007. Baldwin made his statement about Congressman Hyde in 1998, during the Clinton impeachment scandal. Apparently, Hyde should have been stoned to death along with his family because he argued that Clinton needed to be impeached and had the audacity to be a HYPOCRITE!!!! in Baldwin’s eyes (or something).

Alec Baldwin also smeared Matt Drudge, claiming that Drudge made sexual advances towards him, was creepy, and “uptight about being gay”. Drudge, of course, sued.

Unfortunately, Baldwin has said much worse about people he doesn’t like. He has accused Dick Cheney of being a terrorist in the Huffington Post:

Cheney is a terrorist. He terrorizes our enemies abroad and innocent citizens here at home indiscriminately. Who ever thought Harry Whittington would be the answer to America’s prayers. Finally, someone who might get that lying, thieving Cheney into a courtroom to answer some direct questions.

He then clarified, saying in another diatribe on the HuffPo:

I want to apologize to all of the readers of this blog for referring to Vice President Cheney as a terrorist. I suppose that, in the post-9/11 world, one would be hard-pressed to refer to anyone other than a militant Arab fundamentalist who hijacks a plane and pilots it into a building somewhere on our shores or a Palestinian who bears a bomb into a cafe in Israel as a terrorist. How about something more measured, then? How about…a lying, thieving Oil Whore. Or, a murderer of the US Constitution? No wait! Try…the worst Vice President in US history? Anyway, let me work on that.

Right. That’s the worst non-apology apology I’ve ever read.

He didn’t leave his vitriol just for Cheney. He also attacked President Bush, saying most notably:

“I know that’s a harsh thing to say, perhaps, but I believe that what happened in 2000 did as much damage to the pillars of democracy as terrorists did to the pillars of commerce in New York City.”

But perhaps the most notable example of Baldwin’s rage is in a voicemail he left to his own daughter. Because she apparently committed the unforgivable sin of not answering the phone when he called, he swore at her, called her a “thoughtless pig”, and told her the next time he saw her he was going to “straighten her out”. Listen for yourself and be disgusted:

All of this just goes to show how unfit for office Alec Baldwin would be. However, if he ran, especially in a crazy liberal nanny state like New York, he’d have a very good chance of winning. You may sneer at the notion, but look at Jesse Ventura. Look at Arnold Schwarzenegger. Look at Al Franken. It’s pathetic — people will look at him and see the funny guy on that TV show 30 Rock. Some people will look at the things I’ve listed above and think, “No way,” but plenty others will ignore it. It’s a sad statement to make, but it’s the truth.

I can only hope the day never comes when that door opens for him to enter politics. It would be a sad day for our country indeed.