Alec Baldwin for congress?

American actor Alec Baldwin, well known for his liberal views and a regular commentator for the Huffington Post, has said in a magazine interview that he would like to run for Congress as a Democrat once his contract with the TV comedy 30 Rock comes to an end. "The desire is there, that's one component," he told Playboy. "The other component is opportunity."

The New York-based actor claimed he had already turned down offers to run as a governor in Ohio or California, saying that his political ambitions lie firmly in his hometown. "Who wants to move to California?" he said, "I'm a carry-me-out-in-a-box New Yorker."

Asked if he was qualified to enter politics, he made a dig at fellow actor-turned-politician, Arnold Schwarzenegger, the current Governor of California. "His only credentials are that he ran a fitness programme under some bygone president... I'm [Alexis] de Tocqueville compared to Schwarzenegger."

However, writing for the Huffington Post this week, Baldwin appeared more circumspect. Public office, he said, was "among the most sacred trusts that one can enter into". He went on: "I would like to give that

a lot of serious thought before I decide if that is right for me and the voters I would potentially serve."

Baldwin has had a number of public clashes with the right-wing commentator Bill O'Reilly. His failure to curb his tongue has caused him problems many times; in 2007 he famously left a message on the answer-machine of his 11-year-old daughter Ireland, in which he called her a "rude, thoughtless little pig," said "you've insulted me for the last time", and threatened to "straighten your ass out". The message was leaked to the gossip website TMZ.com while he was fighting a custody battle with Ireland's mother, his former wife Kim Basinger.