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Voice mail tirade may 'haunt' Baldwin's political aims

BY RICK BRAND | rick.brand@newsday.com

May 10, 2008

If Alec Baldwin is again flirting with seeking public office, as he hints in an interview Sunday on "60 minutes," a tirade in which he called his daughter "a thoughtless little pig" may come back to "haunt" him, as one political consultant put it.

The critically acclaimed star in NBC's sitcom "30 Rock" tells the CBS News show that politics may be an option now that he's past 50.

"There's no age limit on running for office to a degree," said Baldwin, who grew up in Massapequa and now uses his Amagansett home as his voting address. Seeking office is "something I might do one day," though he did not identify when he might run or for what office.

Republicans immediately lambasted Baldwin's potential electability. Tony Santino, Nassau GOP spokesman, said, "I guess he won't be running for father of the year."

Baldwin has been talking publicly about running since at least 1994, and his political aspirations were the subject of a New York magazine cover story in 1997 in which he described himself as a "ferocious liberal."

In 1998, Baldwin hosted a fundraiser for President Bill Clinton when he was married to movie star Kim Basinger.

The controversial two-minute phone message to his daughter Ireland, 11, surfaced amid the couple's nasty divorce in 2007. After the incident, Baldwin talked about leaving the country and quitting his sitcom but changed his mind. Baldwin stars as Jack Donaghy, a high-powered TV executive. He won the 2007 Golden Globe Award and back-to-back SAG Awards for the role.

While "60 Minutes" did not connect the incident with Baldwin's political aims, the actor said in the interview, "You can pretty much bet all you own, that I would never leave another voice mail for my daughter that wasn't something out of a Rodgers and Hammerstein score."

In the past year, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani came under fire during his presidential bid over the apparent chasm with his children.

"A lot of people will certainly say anyone who runs for office needs the support of their immediate family, including children," said political consultant Michael Dawidziak, "Have they kissed and made up? Or is it something still out there? If it is ... It could come back to haunt him."

[CORRECTION: Through an editing error, a story Saturday about actor Alec Baldwin's potential political ambitions misstated the response of his publicist. He declined to comment. Pg. A15 ALL 5/13/08] Baldwin's publicist did not return a call for comment Friday.