You’d think an athlete eight years removed from his playing days wouldn’t be the center of attention.

Well Charles Barkley defies logic as he is just as big (bigger if you count his pants size) of a celebrity now as he was when he played.

Sir Charles is in the news again today with two different yet equally entertaining stories. Apparently he is looking to both run for congress and be the subject of a reality television show.

I’ll start with his possible congressional run. According to The Birmingham News Democrat Rep. Artur Davis is seriously considering vacating his congressional seat in order to run for Alabama governor. Davis more than happily offered up his thoughts on a possible replacement.

“I’ve heard Charles [Barkley's] name mentioned as someone who might have an interest,” Davis said. “I know he has a home in Leeds now and he could buy a flat in Birmingham inside the district but that really doesn’t really matter. I know he’s someone who has a real interest in the state, in wanting to see it move forward.”

We’ve all heard the Charles Barkley political rumors before but this one sounds like it might have some actual substance to it. I just don’t know that I can really envision the Chuckster giving up his retirement and TNT gig to become a member of congress. For that matter I’m not sure that he is 100% electable. One thing is for sure, he will have a lot of slogans to choose from just based on his own quotes.

I think a Charles Barkley show about his golf swing would garner more interest than a run for congress…

Which brings us to the second Barkley headline of the day. According to USAToday.com Chuck is going to be the star of a new Golf Channel reality show. The show will be all about trying to fix Barkley’s golf swing and will featured Tiger Woods swing coach.

Here are a few of the working titles for the show;

• Hitch
• Charles Not In Charge
• FattyShack
• The Swing of Chucky
• Mission Impossible

It’s bad enough having to watch a weekend of Charles’ swing from Tahoe I can’t imagine watching an entire series about it. Then again I couldn’t imagine watching more than 15 minutes of the golf channel anyways.

Maybe the way that both of these ideas can be saved is by combining the two and making a show about fixing both Barkley’s campaign and golf swing. That or just have an entire series about Barkley’s gambling tips.

To borrow a favorite phrase from Barkley both the idea of a television show and a campaign are just “terrible”.

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