Here’s the one thing you need to know about Politics.

If you have achieved a certain level of fame? You will be approached to run for office. It does not matter when, it does not matter where, if you did something major. You will be approached to run for something.

The leadership in both parties? They are starfuckers like the rest of us.

This is where the election in the Missouri 9th Congressional District comes in. Republican Matt Blunt is retiring as Missouri’s governor. And the representative from the 9th, Republican Kenny Hulshof, is the man that’s handpicked to take his place.

But who takes Kenny Hulshof’s place?

That’s Brock Olivo. He was a legend in the mid-1990’s for the University of Missouri. A good player on a bad team. Also, a white running back.

This man has been tabbed as the Republican front-runner to pick up the open seat. This is not where the problem lies. Athletes have served ably in political office for several decades, and most of them have been Conservatives.

Here’s where it starts to go bad.

• “Not only was I football player, but I also was in social studies class, and I have a passion for how this country works,” Olivo said.

  

Now, an excellent Civics teacher can imbue someone with the lifelong passion for politics, and the fact of the matter is you can’t really say if he’s volunteered or done some work for a campaign. After all, the rumor is that Roy Blunt courted this man personally to run for the 9th. And a Blunt is to Missouri what a Daley is to Chicago, so there has to be something to this man’s candidacy, right?

•  “I’m a Republican for now, that’s all I can say,” Olivo said. “I believe in hard work. I believe in values, and my platform will surface in due time, and I’ll be glad to sit down with you and talk to you about that.”

The Republican platform is easy. Islamofacists? Bad. The Gays? Worse. Troops fighting Evil? Support it. Tax Cuts? Awesome.

My personal opinion does not matter on this, I can’t vote for the guy, he can be Tom Coburn Arch-Conservative for all I care. But right now, he’s nothing more than an ex-Special Teams ace in an empty suit. Oh? And about that political passion thing?

Lies.   

• Brock Olivo wants supporters to do for him something he has never done: vote.Olivo, the former Mizzou football star now running for Congress, has never voted before in an election, public records show.

  Reached today, Olivo confirmed that he has never cast a ballot, in Missouri or anywhere else.

  “I’m a recovered apathetic,” Olivo, 31, said, adding that “I am first to admit that I was wrong.”

Apparently, he did not learn the greatest lesson of all in Social Studies class. That when you vote, you can change the world. But maybe I’m being unfair. After all, this is Brock Olivo’s first lie as a political candidate. He just might have a future in this thing.

Check him out in action. Tell me he can’t emerge as a Congressman.