Remember that voicemail message that Alec Baldwin left for his-then 12 year-old daughter, Ireland, in which he sounded like a mafia kingpin telling her she had insulted him for the last time and calling her a thoughtless little pig? (Here’s a Dora the Explorer mashup with the voicemail created by Funny Or Die in case you missed it.)

Baldwin was on 60 Minutes last night and Morley Safer specifically asked him about the voicemail message, which was leaked a little over a year ago. You could see Baldwin’s temper starting to mildly flare in his response to Morley, in which he took the question as a personal affront and told him he had a judgmental tone.

On his nasty voicemail message to his daughter

Alec: You get so frustrated and you realize number one, and it’s wrong, it’s totally wrong, that I was really speaking to somebody else when I left that message. I mean, I was past, I was putting up with this for six years.

Morley: But you weren’t talking to another person. You were talking to your daughter, a kid. You said “you thoughtless little pig” I mean I find it hard to utter the words.

Alec: Did you ever lose your temper with your kids?

Morley: Yeah, but nothing like that.

Alec: If you’re asking me, do I feel bad about leaving that message. I think that goes without saying. At the same time [acting pissed] I’m pretty overwhelmed by the sanctimoniousness of people who say that I mean I got so many phonecalls from people who seem as learned and sober and together as you are, who all said to me “Man, I’m glad they didn’t tape some of the things I said to my kids.”

Morley: As appalling as what you said may be even more appalling may be that it was released by someone.

Alec: That tells you what I’m dealing with. Listen, you use words like appalled and you have, if I may say so, a pretty judgmental tone of me. I think that as truly sorry as I am that that happened, to me it only illustrates how difficult this process has become for many many people.

[Transcribed from 60 Minutes interview aired 5/11/08, video below]

We reported on Saturday that Alec said he would consider running for office and said that “it’s something I might do one day.”

Baldwin laughed while he repeated the words of Hillary Clinton in 1998 in which she said there was a “Vast right-wing conspiracy” against her husband, President Bill Clinton. (This was when she tried to diffuse public perception of Lewinsky scandal before it was known that Bill was guilty as charged.)

He said that the conservatives are “after him” and that they “hate liberals.” As for his much-repeated statement that he would move out of the US if Bush was elected, he claims he didn’t say that. What he said was that it “might be a good time to leave” if Bush won, which he maintains is quite different:

On the vast right wing conspiracy against him

“They hate liberals who can throw a punch,” Baldwin tells Safer.

Asked who “they” are, Baldwin says, “They, yeah, this…they. The vast right wing conspiracy that’s after me…”

The right went wild when it was reported he said he’d move out of the country if George Bush were elected.

“I never said that,” Baldwin says. “I said, ‘It might be a good time to leave the country.’ There’s a big difference between that and promising to leave the country. And even if I did, who cares? What difference would that make in anyone lives, you know?”

“Your eloquence, if that’s the word, can get you into deep trouble,” Safer remarks.

“So I don’t make the eloquent point so eloquently, is that what you’re saying?” Baldwin asks.

“Or you make them perhaps excessively eloquent, as in your description of Dick Cheney, who you said was a sociopath and a terrorist. And you later apologized by just calling him a lying, thieving oil whore and a murderer of the U.S. Constitution,” Safer replies.

“You know, all the cameramen are cracking up. So, there is an audience out there. It may only be five or six men,” Baldwin says.

[From CBSNews.com]

A lot of people agree with Baldwin, and a lot of people think he should keep his mouth shut. Either way, he’s definitely a character. Baldwin is writing a book about divorce and parental alienation to help other men who are being shut out of their children’s lives by their ex wives. A possible career in politics may also be in his future. He’s sure to bring more of that spitfire personality to whatever he does, and it serves him well in his acting career but may be more of a liability in a public service role.

Alec on his voicemail message:

Alec on the vast right wing conspiracy against him:

Baldwin is shown in the header on 5/7/08 at the opening night of “Top Girls” thanks to WENN.