Will "The Dude" Run For The U.S. Senate ?

(This photo of Jeff Bridges at the Berlin Film Festival is by Thore Siebrands.)

The Democrats have lost their candidate for U.S. Senate in Montana. The original candidate, incumbent John Walsh, has withdrawn from the race. He says he wants to focus on serving his Montana constituents, and withdrawing from the campaign will allow him to do that. The truth is that recent revelations that he plagiarized much of his dissertation to earn his Master's Degree at the Army War College have caused his numbers to plummet -- and it has become clear that he could not win in November.

That leaves Montana Democrats without a candidate, and they have until August 21st to choose someone to replace Walsh. That is the date that the ballot must be finalized, and if they don't choose a candidate before then, their candidate will not appear on the November ballot.

A former Livingston (Montana) resident, Lizabeth Pratt, has come up with an interesting idea. She has started a campaign to draft Academy Award winning actor Jeff Bridges as the Democratic candidate for senator. Pratt's petition is on Change.org, and as of Tuesday had garnered nearly 1200 signatures. It reads:

Encourage Jeff Bridges, Park County Resident, to run for the Montana U.S. Senate.

Jeff is a great person.  He has loved Montana and all it represents since he first set up residence in Park County four decades ago.  He has great name recognition!  Charisma!  Brains!  He's internationally reknowned, but he is also highly accessible.  We need The Dude to be Montana's next U.S. Senator!

Bridges has heard about the petition, and joked about it when appearing on the Howard Stern Show this week. But interestingly enough, he did not say it was out of the question. I doubt he will run though. This sounds like the same kind of pie-in-the-sky dream that some Texans had a couple of years ago when Tommie Lee Jones was encouraged to run for the Senate.

But personally, I wish Bridges would run. I think he could win, and would make a very good senator. He's smart, ethical, and cares about this country and its citizens. And he might even be able to reach across the aisle and talk common sense with some of the Republicans.

NOTE -- For those few of you who might not be familiar with my reference to Bridges as "The Dude", he played a character referred to that way in the popular movie "The Big Lebowski". The movie has a large cult following, and even spawned a faux religion called "Dudeism".