May 2, 2007 - 11:17am
Blogger starts move to draft Leiter
By Wally Edge
Tags: Al Leiter
A frequent contributor to PoliticsNJ.com's comments section under the presumed pseudonym of Dino P. Crocetti has started a blog aimed at encouraging former baseball star Al Leiter to seek the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate in 2008. Leiter, a Toms River native who played for the Yankees and Mets, has become active in GOP politics as a supporter of Douglas Forrester, Michael Bloomberg and Rudy Giuliani.
In New Jersey, former professional athletes have a mixed record of success. Hall of Fame basketball player Bill Bradley spent eighteen years as New Jersey's U.S. Senator. Former Tennis great Althea Gibson lost a Democratic primary for State Senator in 1977 (she was defeated by incumbent Frank Dodd, the former Senate President, who was running on a slate with then-Assemblyman Richard Codey), and in 1990, former Giants receiver Phil McConkey lost a GOP primary for an open House seat to Dick Zimmer.And Harry Harper, aka "Hackensack Harry," who spent ten seasons as a major league baseball pitcher and started the sixth game of the 1921 World Series for the Yankees, won a race for Bergen County Sheriff in 1927, but lost bids for State Senator, U.S. Senate, and narrowly for a seat in Congress.
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Wow the actual subject of a post...
I bet Dino is just about wetting his pants right now...
Thank You
Wally, thanks for the nod. I really appreciate it. I really hope others interseted in seeing this happen will join me.
As for ebmd, I will not wet my pants until the folks over at Blue Jersey see fit to mock me somehow. That's when you know you've hit the big time as a conservative blogger.
I'm waaaaiiiiitiiiiinnng!
"Any Nation which can prefer disgrace to danger is prepared for a master and deserves one" -Alexander Hamilton
Congrats
Congrats Man...i will definately consider supporting Leiter once I know what his positions are...and he gets out there. Don't know much about his political stuff but I love him for when he pitched his first game for the Yanks and shut down the Sox.
maybe, maybe not
Dino's blogosphere power nonwithstanding...I haven't seen any inclination, statement, or posturing that would lead me to believe that Al Leiter is even considering this.
He seems to enjoy being a broadcaster...and perhaps he should run for something smaller first.
Does he still live in Toms River, or up north somewhere?
Wally
If I may make a suggestion, perhaps tomorrow's poll question should ask who would win a U.S.Senate Race in '08 between Al Leiter and Frank Lautenberg.
I would be really interested to see that put to a vote here and I'm sure others would too.
"Any Nation which can prefer disgrace to danger is prepared for a master and deserves one" -Alexander Hamilton
Dino
Anyone who has an answer to that before Mr. Leiter makes any sort of position statements about any of the issues that face NJ and the nation today deserves to have their right to vote stripped from them. This is a Senate race, not American Idol.
Leiter with little substance
Al Leiter for senate? Perhaps Randy Johnson should run for president, or Claudio Reyna (a N.J. native) should run for the U.S. House. Dino and other Republicans are so desperate for a new candidate after 11 straight senate election losses that they will lobby to have a person with no political experience and no definitive policy positions to serve as their candidate.
When we substitute a deliberate political process with a popularity contest of sports stars, democratic elections, the voters and substantive policy differences become the ultimate losers in the process.
Name Recognition Survey
That would be all about perception, although the folks that visit this site tend to follow things a little more closely than the general public. For all intents and purposes, the surveys started for President on November 8th last year and continue to include people who aren't even running. There would be nothing wrong with doing it.
ebmd and Mikey
I love the smell of lib fear in the late-afternoon! You always know a lib is scared when they pretend to care about respect for the political process and the intelligence of who votes!!
Ask any powerful Hudson County politician like Bob Menendez or Brian Stack if they would prefer it if their political process wasn't a popularity contest! Seriously, are you kidding me?
Nobody has benefitted from the political process in New Jersey being a popularity contest more than Democrats and just the thought of it blowing up in their face scares them to death.
If you don't believe me, ask Bernard Kenny!
P.S., Hey Mikey, I'm beginning to see why you don't break away from your George Soros script very often.
"Any Nation which can prefer disgrace to danger is prepared for a master and deserves one" -Alexander Hamilton
Bill Bradley
What made Bill Bradley anymore qualified than Al Leiter would be? While I am obviously not a democrat or a liberal, I respect Bill Bradley, he worked hard as our Senator and is one of a handful of recent NJ Senators not to end up in jail or resigning in disgrace. If Bradley can be a good Senator, I'm sure Leiter could do the same.
ummm, Bradley was more qualified...
Bradley went to Princeton and was a Rhodes scholar. As far as I can tell, Leiter didn't even go to college.
Not that education is the #1 criteria for competence as a legislator, but some college degree from somehwere would be nice.
Leiter seems like a good guy, and smart...but let's not go and compare him to Dollar Bill now.
Good to see blue Jersey on here!
MartinOne aka blue jersey's voice has arrived. Isn't it a little too early to be thinking about this whole thing, maybe Al Leiter hasn't thought about this at all and Dino's movement will somehow spread word to him and encourage him to put out his positions and start the trot for senate. Ya Never Know', nobody will really emerge until the end of Summer anyway. I know one thing, despite not knowing any of his positions, I'd still vote for him over Lautenberg, hell I'll give you this, if Leiter just puts his name on there and doesn't do anything as far as stating positions, I'll tank my vote. Come on do you really want an 83 year old as a senator? He's going to be the next strom thurmand!
Regarding Mr. Bradley
  So according to Mr. Democrat, Bill Bradley was more qualified than Al Leiter. Why? Because Bradley accepted a scholarship from a program founded by an overt racist (Cecil Rhodes). Funny how no Democrats ever had a problem with taking a Rhodes scholarship, even back when South Africa was being ostracized. As for Bradley going to Princeton, does anyone really think he would have gotten accepted there if not for his basketball skills? The fact of life is that a celebrity running for office in New Jersey usually has a built-in advantage because name recognition offsets the high costs of political advertising in a state that does not have its own commercial television stations. Al Leiter has this advantage and appears to be a smart, reasonable guy. That scares the heck out of Democrats.
Another Perfect Example
It's another perfect example of how nuts libs get at just the thought of losing an ounce of power, much like the way Moe and Larry got whenever Curly said Niagara Falls!
"Any Nation which can prefer disgrace to danger is prepared for a master and deserves one" -Alexander Hamilton
Niagra Falls...
Slowley he yearned, loss after loss;
Let's try a Famous Baseball Player!
Now if you could get Hulk Hogan to relocate...
PS
DPC, here's some encouragement... http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/elections/govern...
PPS If Lautenberg decides to retire, we could do a lot worse than having Bradley run again! Bill are you listening?
From Frederick Douglass