In case you missed it, actor-and-budding-politico Alec Baldwin wrote an essay for the Huffington Post on Thursday entitled "Anthony Weiner Is a Modern Human Being."
The column — essentially a rationalization for how a busy politician like Weiner could fall prey to the pitfalls of connecting with people on the Internet — has generated more than 2,000 passionate comments.
But was the "30 Rock" actor being sincere with the blog entry?
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Okay, so the answer is probably yes. The politically liberal Baldwin — whose rep suggested Wednesday that Weinergate has him contemplating a run at New York City mayor in 2013 — generally uses his space on HuffPo to make passionate defenses of causes he supports or to take down politicians he can't condone, like his notorious debut post for the site that included the sentence "My question for today is: Why are contemporary Republicans so full of shit?"
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He also replied via Twitter to the many negative comments his post has generated with a snap ("A lot, a real lot, of sanctimonious d-bags on HuffPo"), and this came shortly after linking out to the essay with a perfectly plausible set-up comment ("What I have offered on HuffPo is an explanation of, not an excuse for Weiner's behavior. Big difference"). Both of these tweets indicate that he meant what he said and said what he meant and that Alec Baldwin is sincere 100 percent.
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Still, you have to be skeptical when a very funny actor and tweeter — one who has hosted "Saturday Night Live" more than any person other than Steve Martin and who has won two Emmys for convincingly lampooning TV execs as Jack Donaghy — writes something so seemingly earnest as his HuffPo column on Weinergate. Especially when said essay contains the line "Appointment sex with your spouse doesn't always arrive when you need it most" and (to my knowledge) coins the awesome phrase "cyber-sleep with you."
Regardless of whether he's being sincere or joking — and we'll give him the benefit of the doubt that it's the former — the essay offers further compelling evidence that he'd make for an entertaining