Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Into the Tyson Zone

Sometimes national attention isn't a good thing. Just ask GOP gubernatorial candidate, who was mentioned over the weekend in an online chat on the Washington Post Web site with political blogger Chris Cillizza.

A participant suggested that there should be an equivalent of "The Tyson Zone" for politicians. This is the concept of sports writer Bill Simmons, who explains that he came up with it, "after reaching a point at which I would have believed any story about Mike Tyson (real or made up). Over the past few years, a few other celebrities (Ron Artest, Britney Spears, Michael Jackson, Dennis Rodman, O.J. Simpson, Courtney Love, R. Kelly, Lindsay Lohan, Roger Clemens) have received a Tyson Zone stamp from me."

Cillizza responded:

I love the Tyson Zone. My member this week: Pete Domenici Jr., the son of the New Mexico Republican Senator, who is running for governor.

After delivering one of the worst announcement speeches ever, Domenici Jr. admitted that he had done marijuana and cocaine in the past. Um, not good.

You can find that HERE. (You'll have to scroll down about a quarter of the way down the page.)

That could be a little harsh. As several New Mexico political hounds, including this one, have noted, similar cocaine revelations didn't hurt the election efforts of Barack Obama or Gary Johnson.

But it's going to get harsher. As pollster Brian Sanderoff told me yesterday, Domenici's radio appearance last week on Jim Villanucci's show on KKOB-AM will come back to haunt him in the coming weeks. "I suspect we'll be hearing sound bites from that interview," Sanderoff said.