"a different breed of cat"

From Ed Gorman:

I see Ashley Judd has dropped her plans to run for Senate. She's a  good actress and appears to be an intelligent woman but I was  surprised at her decision to look into it. I've never worked in a Senate campaign but I worked in three Congressional campaigns and wrote speeches for a governor and two congressmen. These were all-out  battles, 24/7, things going wrong every day.  All campaigns are like this. I can't imagine the toll a campaign would take. People who want these jobs--no matter their party--are driven by an ambition most of us don't share or can even comprehend. To paraphrase Jefferson--when a man tells me he's planning to run for office I immediately suspect his worst motives.

Now I'm not as cynical as ole Tom--I believe there are decent hardworking people in both sides of the aisle--but I do believe that it takes a kind of different breed of cat to seek the higher offices. In addition to recommending my own Dev Conrad political novels, pick up The Man Who by Gregory MacDonald. He nails beautifully all the competing forces preying on a single presidential candidate as he tries to decide which way to vote--and how to explain the naked girl who just jumped off the roof of the hotel where he happened to be staying. It's very very funny but also gives you real insight into the process.