Curt Schilling's Platform: Politics is the Status Quo and 'The Status Quo Sucks'

Schilling's Platform: 'The Status Quo Sucks'

Curt Schilling said again today that he's strongly considering a Senate run in Massachusetts, and has even talked to some consultants about what such a candidacy would take. Still, he cautioned that it is "not an absolute certainty one way or another."

"Ultimately it comes down to the conversation between Shonda and I," he told WEEI radio this morning, conceding that a political run is "not something that she's remotely interested in." There are many cons, but also some pros to each scenario, he added.

Schilling, a former Major League pitcher with the Boston Red Sox, said he "would not even remotely consider" running if he "wasn't planning on winning." And he sounded pretty confident that he would be a strong candidate as he railed against the establishment and argued that what politics needs is more fresh blood.

"The status quo sucks," he said. "I don't really enjoy talking in broad generalities, but there's so much wrong, so much going on that we are in desperate need of new blood and people that can walk in and make change and not have connections and ties to the old guard and old school and be beholden to them."

Without naming names or even singling out a particular party, he said that special interests in the Bay State are "doing anything and everything they can that have absolutely no interest in the common man." He also sounded more like a candidate for governor than for federal office as he said Massachusetts is "becoming a state that's next to impossible to live and prosper in."

"This state, next to Illinois, is probably looked at as one of the most corrupt, laughable, political scenes in the nation. It should be just the opposite," he said.

With other potential candidates, especially on the Democratic side, coming out of Congress or state government, he wondered what they could offer voters.

"The fight would be a lot of fun because pretty much anybody that you're fighting against that's in office right now doesn't really have much of a leg to stand on," he said. "There's nobody that can stand up and say, 'Look what I've done over the last two, four, six, eight, 12, 20 years. Because those are the people that the pitchforks and the torches are out for right now."

His credentials?

"My credentials are that I have no baggage. I have no special interest. I have no ties," he said. "I would be coming in to help this state get back to what it was, what it should be and what it can be."

He said he still needs time to make a decision, but conceded that he will obviously need to make it "in relatively short order," considering upcoming deadlines. Multiple reports today indicate that because he's a registered independent, Schilling would not be eligible to run as a Republican. The deadline for submitting nomination papers to local registrars as an independent candidate would be November 24.

Schilling and the supportive radio show hosts noted the precedence of sports stars in the Senate, including fellow pitcher Jim Bunning and NBA star Bill Bradley. Schilling also mocked a recent entry to the U.S. Senate, Al Franken. The fact that he won "should give hope to anybody."

You can listen to the full interview here and here.