Dr. Death '08

Dr. Jack Kevorkian, nicknamed Dr. Death, claimed to assist over 100 people commit suicide in the 1990s. He has been out on parole for 10 months after serving eight years of a 10-to-25-year sentence for second-degree homicide for participating in the assisted suicide of a Thomas Youk, a Michigan man with ALS, in 1998. As a condition of his parole, Kevorkian is not allowed to aid in anyone else's death or care for anyone over 62 or disabled.

To occupy his time and keep from going back to jail, the 79-year-old Kevorkian has decided to run for Congress in Michigan's 9th district (Oakland County). If he is able to collect the required 3,000 signatures on his petition he will be on the November 2008 ballot as an independent.

After his release, Kevorkian said that he would not assist in any suicides, but focus on trying to gain support for legislative change.

While some media outlets seem to be taking the news less seriously, like in the LA Times headline "Dr. Death, Jack Kevorkian, seeks a House seat or else," the idea is apparently not so far-fetched to everyone.

Some voters voiced possible support for the candidate in news interviews, while hosts of the View, Joy Behar and Whoopi Goldberg, came to the ex-pathologist's defense on this morning's edition of their show. After calling herself a big fan of his, Goldberg said "he believed that he could help people who were in, in a place where no one was helping them." Behar added, "The thing about Kevorkian is that I don’t consider him a bad guy."

The question is whether he will be a bad representative. In his official announcement yesterday he said "this country is going in the wrong direction." He also spoke out against the war in Iraq, claiming the conflict shouldn't even be called a war, which he defined as "when two adversaries have about the equal resources to fight."

Kevorkian is running against eight-term incumbent Republican Joe Knollenberg, and there has been doubt that the convicted felon will earn enough votes to effect the race. Though his opponents told the Washington Times that "voters are more concerned about the economy and jobs than euthanasia," he will certainly make the race more interesting and already has.

AP Photo