Sykes for Senate

On his WTMJ radio program today, Charlie Sykes addressed the suggestion that he should jump into the U.S. senate race and challenge Wisconsin's radical Leftist senator, Russ Feingold.

About a week ago, Mark Belling started calling on Sykes to run.

This morning, Sykes played a clip from Belling's WISN talk show. I believe the clip was the first time Belling made the case for Sykes to take on the vulnerable Feingold. This was before Scott Brown beat Martha Coakley to become Massachusetts' next senator.

So far, the Republican Party of Wisconsin has failed to find a viable candidate to run against Feingold. It would be a flat-out dereliction of duty for the Party to permit Feingold to waltz his way to another term without having to face a credible opponent.

Sykes said he decided to discuss the topic of tossing his hat into the ring since people were inquiring, via e-mail, about the matter.

He agrees with Belling that the Republicans would be missing a tremendous opportunity if they didn't make a serious effort to get rid of Feingold in 2010.

Sykes offered a list of names he considers to be viable candidates: Paul Ryan, Mark Neumann, Mark Green, Scott Klug, Tim Michels, and Tommy Thompson.

Regarding his proposed candidacy, Sykes said, "At this point in time, I don't anticipate getting into the race."

He said he's having too much fun as a radio talk show host to give up his current gig.

During the discussion, Sykes repeated "at this point."

He sounded a lot like Hillary Clinton did when she was asked about running for president. I can still hear Tim Russert posing the question.

"At this point" and "I don't anticipate" certainly isn't a firm "not gonna do it."

So is Sykes seriously leaving the door open a little bit, or is he being a shrewd showman?