First came the Terminator. Is Batman next?

Actor Val Kilmer may be the next action star-turned-governor, the Associated Press reports. Though he hasn't made an official decision, Kilmer, a New Mexico resident for more than two decades, told the AP that he's looking for ways to be "contributive" in the southwestern state.

"If that ends up being where I can make a substantial contribution, then I'll run," the registered Democrat said, who would replace Gov. Bill Richardson if elected. Richardson is term limited and can't run for reelection.

In addition to the Caped Crusader, Kilmer also appeared in the 1986 movie Top Gun and the 1991 Oliver Stone film The Doors.

But what is Batman's political leanings? To the left, it seems. He has only recently started to make political contributions and most of his money has gone to liberal consumer advocate Ralph Nader. He gave $4,600 to Nader's 2008 presidential campaign and $2,300 to favorite son Bill Richardson's presidential campaign, according to campaign data on the Center for Responsive Politics website. Nothing to Obama

(Reported by USA TODAY Intern Seung Min Kim)

After launching a media blitz that wound through daytime shows and late-night couches, former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich will finally make his way to the stage next week.

Or at least, a musical version of him.

The famous Chicago comedy troupe The Second City will premiere a rock opera titled Rod Blagojevich Superstar, according to NPR's All Things Considered. In one of the opera's pieces, the performers sing: "Rod Blagojevich Superstar, are you as nuts as we think you are?"

"It really fit into this sort of overblown, would-be messiah who's kind of just a naïve, arrogant and vain buffoon," Kelly Leonard, one of the show's creators, told NPR.

The Illinois Senate voted unanimously last month to oust Blagojevich, who was arrested in December on federal corruption charges. He says he is innocent.

(Reported by USA TODAY intern Seung Min Kim)

USA TODAY's Fredreka Schouten reports that Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar did a riotous standup routine last night at the annual Washington Press Club Foundation's Congressional Dinner.

The freshman Democrat from the land-locked state complained about being named to an oceans subcommittee. That is akin to being from Illinois and sitting on the ethics committee, she said, earning belly laughs from reporters, members of Congress and aides filling the ballroom at at a Ritz hotel in downtown Washington.

One of the biggest laugh lines came when she said she had raised $17,000 from ex-boyfriends to finance her Senate campaign. Turning to fellow head-table guest, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Klobuchar said: "I may have the record in the Senate. But I know in the House, that record is held by Barney Frank."

Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif, filling in for Republican Whip Eric Cantor, said House GOP Leader John Boehner missed the event because "as you know, Wednesdays are his tanning night." That and other jokes got a tepid response. McCarthy's excuse: He only had five days to prepare.

Read more jokes and reviews here, here and here.

Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Tex., apparently thinks House Republicans can learn something from the Taliban.

In an interview Wednesday with Hotline editors, the chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee explained how the Republicans need to force House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to work with them and seriously consider their proposals. How?

The Hotline quotes Sessions as saying: "Insurgency, we understand perhaps a little bit more because of the Taliban. And that is that they went about systematically understanding how to disrupt and change a person's entire processes. And these Taliban -- I'm not trying to say the Republican Party is the Taliban. No, that's not what we're saying. I'm saying an example of how you go about [sic] is to change a person from their messaging to their operations to their frontline message. And we need to understand that insurgency may be required when the other side, the House leadership, does not follow the same commands, which we entered the game with."

Stop reading now if you are interested in substance. For the rest of you, on a day when there's little campaign or election news, we point you to The Huffington Post's contest for hottest House freshman.

Readers of the liberal website have, gasp, chosen a Republican -- Aaron Schock, 27, of Peoria, Ill.

It's actually not such a schock (sorry) when you see his picture. Click here for the HuffPo slideshow.

(Schock addresses the Republican National Convention in September, AP photo by Charlie Neibergall)

The New York Times is reporting that Caroline Kennedy bowed out of consideration for the state's vacant Senate seat due to a problem involving taxes and a household employee.

The Times attributes the account to an associate of Gov. David Paterson, who is expected to name a new senator in the next couple of days to succeed Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

The piece describes growing tension between the Paterson and Kennedy camps. An excerpt:

Several people who have spoken to the governor said he had decided on Ms. Kennedy some time ago. A Democrat operative with ties to Mr. Paterson said the governor told Ms. Kennedy last week that she was the choice, but that he would use the next few days to do “a little misdirection to keep the suspense up.”

A person close to the governor adamantly denied that assertion.

“The fiasco of the last 24 hours reinforced why the governor never intended to choose her,” the person said.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said on MSNBC this morning that his cousin Caroline was "very affected" by her uncle Teddy's illness, and that may have been why she withdrew from consideration for New York's vacant Senate seat.

Uncle Teddy, of course, is Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy, who is being treated for a brain tumor and had a seizure Tuesday at an inugural luncheon.

Robert Kennedy also said there were cross-pressures from relatives. "There was strong support within the family, from Teddy, from all the Robert Kennedys, my sister, Kerry, was working very hard for Caroline," he said. But he later added: "I think within her immediate family, there may have been some reluctance."

Shortly after that interview, The Associated Press quoted a source close to Caroline Kennedy as saying Teddy's health did not prompt her exit:

A person who worked closely with Caroline Kennedy on her bid for the Senate says a pressing personal matter unrelated to her uncle's health prompted her to tell the governor she was withdrawing from consideration. The person said Gov. David Paterson had not yet offered her the job, but Kennedy knew she was being seriously considered. The person said Kennedy's decision to bow out was not related to her uncle.

Update at 11:25 a.m. ET: Gannett News Service in Albany adds more detail here. GNS says Paterson advised Kennedy to think about her decision for 24 hours. But by 11 p.m. ET, after many leaks and much confusion, she finalized her withdrawal.

Update at 2 p.m. ET: Newsday says that at about 1 p.m. ET yesterday, Kennedy became aware of a personal situation that she concluded would be an  "impediment" to the Senate job.

Older On Politics readers will remember the name David Stockman.

The Associated Press reports this afternoon that federal prosecutors have dropped criminal charges against the Reagan administration budget director, who was "charged in March 2007 with overseeing a sweeping fraud at a troubled auto parts supplier that he led before the company collapsed into bankruptcy."

According to the AP, the U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan said that a "renewed assessment of the evidence" in the case and information learned after his indictment led to the action.

Stockman was budget director from 1981 to 1985. As the AP recalls, "he created controversy early in his tenure when he told an interviewer (journalist and author William Greider) that he thought Reaganomics was a 'Trojan horse' for the rich, and predicted huge budget deficits."

As you may have heard by now, former president George H.W. Bush told Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace this week that he'd like to see another of his sons, former Florida governor Jeb Bush, run for the White House some day. If Jeb Bush did that, of course, it would raise the possibility of a third member of the Bush family serving as president.

Cast your vote on that idea:

If Hillary Rodham Clinton "had not forgotten that February had 29 days in 2008 -- not just the five for which her campaign planned–she, not (Barack) Obama, would almost certainly be taking the presidential oath of office on Jan. 20," Quinnipiac University Polling Institute assistant director Peter Brown writes this morning in The Wall Street Journal.

And that's why Brown has made the former first lady and soon-to-be secretary of State his "Bumbler of the Year."

By betting she could win the most states on Super Tuesday (Feb. 5) and not focusing on the caucus states that came before and after, Clinton blew her chance at the Democratic presidential nomination, Brown argues.

Brown doesn't run through some of the other presidential contenders and their friends or family who might merit mention.

What about Republican Rudy Giuliani, who didn't focus on the early primary contests and went from front-runner to ex-candidate almost before things really got going? Or another Republican, Fred Thompson, who ran one of the most laid-back -- and shortest -- campaigns in recent history?

There was Democrat Chris Dodd, who basically moved to Iowa (enrolling his young daughter in school there) and never got more than single-digit support. Don't forget Vice President-elect Joe Biden, either. He ended up on the winning ticket. But on the way, he lived up to his reputation for making gaffes -- most noticeably at a campaign rally where he encouraged a supporter in a wheelchair to stand up.

Or how about former president Bill Clinton, who ignited a few controversies along the way during the Democratic primaries?

Then there's Republican presidential nominee John McCain. And perhaps vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin could be included in the list as well.

So: