Vote for The Nanny in 2008?

When people think Fran Drescher, they probably first think about the voice. That voice...I'll never forget a gag Conan O'Brien once did when Drescher was a guest on his show. She began laughing in her trademark fashion and then a herd of goats proceeded to enter and you could hardly tell the two sounds apart. Now as election 2008 approaches the public might be getting to know Drescher more for what's on her mind instead of how her voice sounds. The NY Daily News reports that the Queens-born actress may consider challenging the shaky incumbent Republican Peter King in his New York district next year.

These sudden celebrity entrances into politics generally make me very uneasy. I feel the same way about them as I do when billionaires like Bloomberg enter a race. I feel like they automatically have an unfair advantage. They almost always have immediate name recognition. Which as Sonny Bono, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and others have proved, it doesn't matter if that celebrity is more infamous than just plain famous, it gets them automatic attention and most likely dollars for their campaign. Then again, when said movie star or billionaire is on our side, I tend to be more open minded.

But is Fran Drescher, the former star of a pretty lame sitcom, capable of winning King's seat? In her favor, she's been described as solid progressive on the issues. She has also been a tireless spokesperson on the issue of cancer awareness and research. Meanwhile her possible opponent, Rep. King, has endorsed "ethnic profiling" of Muslims as terrorist suspects. So if it's a race between Drescher and King, I'm backing Drescher for sure.