July 15, 2004

HOW ABOUT BUTKUS?:

Ditka says he won't run for U.S. Senate (AP, 7/15/04)

The draft Ditka bandwagon started rolling Monday and the NFL Hall of Famer said the idea of running for the seat of retiring U.S. Sen. Peter Fitzgerald excited him. By Wednesday night, however, Ditka said that he'd decided against it.

"There was a moment when I said, God, I'd like to take this and run with it, and then I said, you know, put your head on straight and think about what you're getting into," Ditka said outside his restaurant.

Ditka said his volatile temperament could prove a drawback on Capitol Hill.

Once when he was coach of the floundering New Orleans Saints, he answered taunting fans with obscenities as he was leaving the stadium. He later apologized.

"I don't know how I would react on the Senate floor if I got in a confrontation with somebody I really didn't appreciate and maybe didn't appreciate me," Ditka said.


That was the whole point--we wanna see the reaction.

Posted by Orrin Judd at July 15, 2004 8:31 AM
Comments

And I was so looking forward to that Kennedy ass-kicking in the Senate parking lot ...

Posted by: Jeff Brokaw at July 15, 2004 9:07 AM

Nah - Leahy would have been the first to get it.

Posted by: jim hamlen at July 15, 2004 10:13 AM

6 years is a lot of commitment for a whim.

Posted by: Chris Durnell at July 15, 2004 11:27 AM

Oh, well. Time to put the popcorn popper back in the cuphoard.

Posted by: Rick T. at July 15, 2004 1:14 PM

jim hamlen
My choice would be Biden the grimacing sneer.

Posted by: Bill at July 15, 2004 1:34 PM

A clean chop block on Robby (KKK) Byrd. Darn.

Posted by: Robert Schwartz at July 15, 2004 3:09 PM

Gotta give Boxer a forearm shiver, and then knock Schumer into next week.

Posted by: ratbert at July 15, 2004 3:23 PM

JH - Leahy was my second choice, but I won't quibble, both need it, seriously ... ;-)

Posted by: Jeff Brokaw at July 15, 2004 3:25 PM

How about bupkis?

What a big disappointment this whole Illinois Senate race is turning out to be. Essentially, the Illinois GOP is giving up on the seat and this means we are letting the democrats have that seat. That negates a pick-up in South Carolina.

Posted by: pchuck at July 15, 2004 5:58 PM

What about Jim what's his name, the Super Bowl QB?

Posted by: Harry Eagar at July 15, 2004 7:16 PM

Obviously Ditka doesn't want to have the press crawl up his ass with a microscope they way they did with Ryan. You know as much as the media loves diversity they were going to dig as much as they needed to to find dirt on Obama's opponent, and then make it up if they can't find it.

So the GOP loses Illinois, picks up Georgia, North and South Carolina, and has a pretty damn good shot at Louisiana and Florida. And the Dems don't have anywhere near as good a shot at a similar pickup. Their leaders are fighting for their lives in Nevada and SD when they should be coasting.

Posted by: MarkD at July 15, 2004 7:17 PM

Mark D - agree with your analysis but I haven't seen that Nevada will be tough for the Dems. Any polls/articles on this? Pundits are saying GOP pickups in the South may be offset by GOP losses in Alaska, Colorado, and Oklahoma but my bet is that the GOP holds these seats.

Posted by: AWW at July 15, 2004 11:47 PM

Butkus lives in Malibu. Would have been an interesting campaign if George Allen had recruited him to run against Barbara Boxer, eh?

Posted by: old maltese at July 16, 2004 6:54 PM
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