'I'm sure there are people who will say "Here's another Hollywood idiot," says former actor Ken Wahl, of his political ambitions, 'and others will say they like what I have to say.'
'Of course, I haven't been a "Hollywood idiot" for a long time.'
The former star of TV's WISEGUY is as divorced from Hollywood as a one-time star can get: He's spent the past two decades recovering from an injury that ended his career.
Now he's entertaining the idea of running for Congress as the unlikeliest of creatures: a Golden Globe-winning Hollywood leading man who – despite marrying two centerfold models – isn't a committed liberal.
The 'Disaster of Obamacare is now coming true,' he tweeted in March. '[N]ow doctors [are] retiring due to this. This is what happens when reps like Pelosi don't read bills.'
He wouldn't call himself a Republican either, however.
'I consider myself an independent,' Wahl, 58, told MailOnline. 'I wouldn't want to try to get involved in the Republican Party. I don't like political parties in general.'
'I think there's so much corruption. Instead of caring about the country, people end up serving their party. I think people understand that, and I think they hate it.'
Independent candidates in American politics generally have the same odds of winning as a foreign film nominated for 'best picture' on Oscar night. Don't bother telling Wahl.
'If I were to do it, one of the reasons would be to go against this antiquated two-party system.'
'Now, I don't think that I would win,' he conceded. 'Maybe I'd wake up a few people. But I think it would be worse for me personally, and for the country, if I ran on a Republican ticket.'
'I mean, look at the Republican Party. They're cannibalizing each other. I think they're so traumatized by the Obama election that they don't know which end is up.'
Wahl has taken his political opinions online, becoming an irritant to Democrats in Washington and a major attraction for veterans' groups who see in him a new champion
'I've learned so much,' he says, smiling through the phone like a college student finishing his first Political Science midterm.
'So much. You wouldn't believe it. Now you can raise money and organize on the Internet. … I mean, how do people know about me at all? I virtually disappeared after my accident in 1992. I vanished for 20 years. But now people reach out to me online and I haven't spent a nickel. The Internet has democratized everything, including the political process. It's a great equalizer.'
Paul Newman's co-star in Fort Apache: The Bronx was an 18-year-old kid who left home in his Dodge Dart with $75 in his pocket, a James Dean streak a mile wide, and a name that wasn't Ken Wahl.
So who is Ken Wahl?
'Ken Wahl' was a man who saved his father's life during the Korean War by sacrificing his own. The stage name is a badge of honor, and the actor wouldn't tell MailOnline his birth name. (IMDB.com lists it as 'Anthony Calzaretta,' but doesn't provide a citation.)
'When and if he runs,' his wife Shane Barbi said, 'we know he has to divulge the details.'
Yes, it's Barbi and Ken.
WISEGUY starred Ken Wahl as Vinnie Terranova (holding the gun, L), an undercover agent who went to prison for a crime he didn't commit so he could infiltrate organized crime syndicates. It lasted four seasons but saw a rief re-boot in a 2-hour 1996 TV movie co-starringDebrah Farentino (R)
Yes, that's Kevin Spacey (R). The Academy Award-winning actor played one of WISEGUY's most compelling recurring characters, a drug-addicted arms dealer named Mel Profitt
Shane Barbi is Ken's wife and, says his personal website, his 'caretaker.' She is also one-half of Playboy magazine's 'Barbi Twins' centerfold phenomenon.
His first wife was 1982 Penthouse Pet of the Year Corinne Alphen, who is now a co-defendant in a 2009 lawsuit he filed in California. Wahl alleges that she and his former business manager Henry Levine bilked him out of millions, leaving him living off of disability payments.
Shane hinted that while Ken would be pleased to see his money again, he would be doubly happy to stop depending on government checks.
He's 'all about reform,' she told MailOnline. 'He says we have to practice what we preach, and get the government out of our lives.'
She alternates between calling herself a 'closet conservative' and a 'closet independent.' Regardless of the label, she's no more protective of the Republican Party than her husband is.
'The good thing about the GOP is the bad thing,' she explained. 'We all have our own opinions, but that means we all fight a lot. Too much, really. You know, some of the Republicans are as bad as the Democrats.'
'And with the Democrats, when a group doesn't follow God they create their own cult leader.'
'You know who I mean.'
The Barbi Twins, Shane and Sia Barbi, appeared on the covers of Playboy magazine's two top-selling issues, one of which sold out in ten days. Their photos also launched the brand's calendar business
Ken and Shane courted over the phone without meeting for more than a half-year, since he was rehabbing a spinal injury and seldom left his apartment. He learned only later who Shane was
Wahl's parents divorced when he was 13.
'My mother took my brother and me, and we moved to Tucson. I lived there for a couple of years, but now it's been 6 or 7 years that Shane and I have been back.'
He never served in a uniform more impressive than what he wore to pump gas at age 18, but he says his medical condition gives him an unusual window into the minds of soldiers who struggle with combat injuries, both the seen and unseen kinds.
'My big mission is to help the veterans,' Wahl said during an exclusive interview. 'When I found out the suicide rates – over 20 a day! – I was absolutely struck dumb. I was just speechless and astonished.'
That figure, he said, includes active duty and retired military in all the services, including those who served as far back as the Second World War. It indicates more suicides than combat deaths.
Enter the politics. 'It goes beyond post-traumatic stress disorder,' Wahl said. 'I think a lot of these guys are completely demoralized because we have such a faceless enemy. It's not like in World War II where we declared war on Germany or Japan. It's a never-ending war on terrorism so there's not a clear goal in sight.'
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'So many of them write to me. They feel like the American people just don't give a damn. They feel unappreciated.'
Wahl sees a coming epidemic of mental illness among today's active duty servicemen and women that's 'exactly' like the post-Vietnam era.
'The rate of suicides is already much greater for Vietnam vets and later,' he said. 'The World War II vets were seen as heroes. The Vietnam vets were called baby killers.'
He listens to their concerns and keeps in touch with as many as he can, sometimes gently correcting those who think his injury was a service-related battle scar.
'I don't walk very well,' he explained. 'Thank God I can still walk at all.'
He couldn't walk for years, though, after his tumble down a slippery marble staircase at a friend's house in 1992.
He could be Congressman Ken Wahl - or perhaps Congressman Anthony Calzaretta - if he runs. There are no independent House members but three in the Senatate, all of whom caucus with Democrats
The fall broke his neck, injured his spinal column and put him in surgery. Either to protect his friend or because it sounded more rebellious, he told reporters the scar on his neck came from a motorcycle accident.
Reporters bought the story because he'd already had one serious crash on a two-wheeler, in 1984, while on his way to meet Diane Keaton about co-starring in the film Mrs. Soffel. While he sat in the hospital getting 89 stitches in his scalp, the meeting evaporated and the part went to Mel Gibson.
But this time Wahl faced more than head lacerations. In severe, unrelenting pain, he had to learn to walk again.
'The one lucky thing is that I didn't completely sever my spinal cord. It was cut into. But it took about 2-1/2 years,' he said.
Those months spent in gut-wrenching physical therapy drove him out of the acting business and into a waiting vodka bottle. Then came a clinical depression. Ultimately it was a series of 12-step meetings that helped him quit drinking, and a group of alcoholics who made him see the value of pulling himself together.
He and Shane decided to marry only after they attended those meetings together.
He discussed his history of depression matter-of-factly, as though it were an allergy or his driver's license organ-donor classification, not something an opposing politico might turn into a 30-second TV ad.
'Ultimately it would be helpful to people to talk about,' he offered, predicting that mental illness will eventually reach a tipping point that casts it into the realm of the ordinary.
KEN WAHL ON THE ISSUES
ON GAY MARRIAGE: 'Conservatives are always talking about getting government out of our lives, so if gay people want to marry, what's the big deal? Let 'em! … [But] be careful what you wish for: Where there is marriage, there is divorce. Just keep that in mind.'
ON GUN CONTROL: 'If you make obtaining guns more difficult, all you do is take guns out of the hands of law-abiding citizens and let the criminals keep theirs. But I understand how people react on an emotional level. … As the victims get younger, completely innocent and defenseless, the emotions get more intense. Which makes sense.'
ON PROTECTING ISRAEL: 'Absolutely, we should defend them at all costs. They're the only democracy in the Middle East.'
ON BEING THE WORLD'S POLICEMEN: 'I always thought the U.S. is damned if we do and damned if we don't. Assad in Syria has killed 70,000 of his own people and counting. If we do get involved, many will say we are imperialists and nation-builders. If we don't, they'll say we're aiding and abetting genocide and morally bankrupt for not intervening.
ON ENERGY POLICY: 'I'm for more oil and gas exploration. ... I'm [also] for alternative energy, but it's a transitional period. I would love to buy a hydrogen-fueled car myself. Of course, hydrogen is extracted from natural gas. So that creates as much pollution. And so do electric cars, since the juice is coming mostly from coal. But if it gets to the point where that's not true, then great.'
ON BALANCING THE FEDERAL BUDGET: 'I'd be in favor of raising the retirement age for Social Security by a couple of years. Not to reduce benefits, but if it can be offset by raising the age, I'd be for that. In 1935 when Social Security was invented, the age of retirement was 65 and most people barely lived to 67 or 68. Now the life expectancy in America is far beyond that.'
ON THE FEDERAL DEBT: 'The public debt is almost 17 trillion dollars. Most people can't even conceive of that number. A million seconds is 11-1/2 days. A billion seconds is 31-1/2 years. A little over that. But a trillion seconds takes almost 31,700 years to go by. It's mind-boggling. So 17 trillion dollars, in seconds, is 500,000 years. People just give up when the numbers become abstract at that point of immensity.'
ON LEGALIZING MARIJUANA: 'I'm definitely for decriminalization. … We saw what a failure Prohibition was. And the War On Drugs is the same. You can't legislate morality. Why are you throwing these people in jail? It's ridiculous. If they want to continue to use drugs, charge them for it! Regulate it. Tax it.'
'Look how long it took women to get the vote. Not until 1920. We don't even think about that anymore. Once the transition takes place, it's not a big deal.'
At times Wahl sounded like he was writing his own script for a remake of Mr. Smith Goes To Washington.
'If I ran, I wouldn't have a snowball's chance in hell,' he said, 'but that's beside the point.'
'Half the members of Congress are probably on some kind of anti-anxiety medication, but they don't bring it up because they want to be re-elected. That should change. I have no problem saying that I had really severe depression for years. I finally worked my way out of it.'
With the self-knowledge that comes from seeing his name in the tabloids, his neck in a brace, and his face on a website devoted to determining if former celebrities are dead or alive, he's grown patient and thoughtful.
Ken and Shane courted for months via telephone, she from her apartment and he from his sickbed, before they ever saw one another face-to-face.
'What was really nice,' Wahl told MailOnline, 'was that we got to know each other on the phone -- for probably 6 or 7 months -- before we met in person. I was in such bad shape physically that I couldn't get out.'
'I realized later that there was a real purity to that. We got to know each other on a mental and emotional basis, and there was nothing physical involved. That made the bond stronger. In the condition I was in, we didn't have the normal sexual tension going on.'
'At the time, I didn't realize how wonderful that was,' he said of his romance with the Playboy legend. 'It occurred to me much, much later.'
Wahl said he had no idea who he was talking to.
'When I got hurt, and virtually fell off the face of the earth, that was when she was at her peak, doing her thing,' he recalled. 'I didn't know who she was, not about Playboy or anything. I learned that later.'
'I'm glad I was ignorant of who she was and what she did. I had no preconceived notions about any of it. I was so out of it, being in the hospital for months, trying to recuperate. I lost touch with the world entirely, including Playboy. I was 33 at the time.'
They married in 1997 and renewed their vows 11 years later.
Wahl, a Chicago native, lived in Hollywood for years and now splits his time between Los Angeles and an Arizona residence near Tucson, in Arizona's 2nd Congressional District. That's where Democrat Ron Barber has assumed the duties Gabrielle Giffords left behind after a January 2011 assassination attempt left her with a brain injury.
Barber, then Giffords' district director, was shot in the thigh and face during that attempt on her life.
Wahl's own injuries are so severe – 'I'm in full rehab mode,' he says, noting his extended unemployment – that voters in any other district might argue he couldn't possibly be an effective legislator. But Giffords kept her House seat for more than a year after she was shot in the head. And Barber, the heroic figure, has his own serious aches and pains.
Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (L) was shot in the head during a January 2011 assassination attempt that left six people dead. Ron Barber (R), Giffords' one-time district director, took the seat after Giffords' health prompted her resignation a year later
'Even knowing my level of incapacitation, people are so hungry for candidates who believe in real things,' Wahl said.
'And I tell people, "I can't do this!" But they say, "We don't care. We still want you to do this."'
'It's flattering beyond belief. It's really not about me. It's about the issues. If people would rather support someone who's crippled than someone else who's full of it? Wow.'
'You can call me a cripple if you want,' he added. 'I'm not politically correct.'
Wahl insists that no one has advised him to 'run against Ron Barber specifically.'
'I actually like Barber. He's very strong on veterans' affairs and generally centrist on other issues,' he said.
'He has no complaints about Ron [Barber] at all, Shane seconded. 'We both like [him], everyone likes him, the left and right. … He is for small business, the little guy and the military. What is there not to like about the guy?'
Barber's office didn't respond to a request for comment, and Wahl wouldn't say if he's picked another district to run in.
CHANGES COMING? Democrat Henry Waxman (L) represents the California district where Wahl has an apartment. He could challenge the Carter-era congressman and galvanize non-liberals in Hollywood
He lived in Malibu for years, in the district Democrat Henry Waxman has represented continuously since 1975. He and Shane still have an apartment there.
Waxman sits in 30th place on the all-time list of uninterrupted years of service in the House of Representatives. He's 7th among current members, behind only John Dingell, John Conyers, Charlie Rangel, Bill Young, Don Young and George Miller.
Shane said her husband 'believes that the Constitution was designed to be the opposite of England and royalty, so that the average farmer could run.'
While she talks more about Wahl's political views than her own, he defers to her on animal welfare. Her love for animals infected him early, and his lengthy physical recovery brought him empathy – sympathy, really – for veterans injured in the line of duty.
'I definitely am into animal welfare, but from a different perspective,' he said.
'After my accident, I became very depressed. I didn't have much of a life anymore. It wasn't just that I couldn't participate. I just felt a real sense of uselessness. I think a lot of men and women in the military feel that way too when they're out of the service and they're injured or afflicted with PTSD. They're used to helping people, but suddenly they're the ones who need help.'
'Let's face it: Giving help is far better than receiving help. It's morally better, and it makes you feel better about yourself. When that is removed from your life, it's depressing.
'Now, what helped me was caring for an animal,' he said of the cat he rescued from a shelter. 'It's a small thing, but it's a start. When you save an animal, it's symbiotic: You're not only saving the animal, but the animal is saving you.'
In 2010 a Minnesota man glued a kitten to the surface of a highway, and the animal later died. Wahl offered his Golden Globe statuette to anyone who could solve the crime.
And last year he mobilized support behind an effort to preserve California's 'Hayden Law' from repeal. The measure forces the state's animal shelters to keep dogs and cats alive longer, in the hope their owners can be found or money can be raised to treat their illnesses.
The animal welfare activists put time into everything from horse-protection initiatives to connecting shelter pets with military veterans dealing with the traumas of combat
But more recently his activism has branched out into military issues, starting a 'Pets For Vets' Facebook initiative and sounding alarms about veterans' mental health.
'When I learned about the military suicide statistics, I just knew I had to do something. I didn't know if anyone under the age of 45 would know who I was, but I had to just throw it out there and see what happens.'
'I think it is beyond just treating PTSD,'he explained. From everything that I'm reading, and hearing from the people who are contacting me, this is a morale issue. It's far beyond a medical problem. They feel demoralized and unappreciated.'
'Those of you Americans out there in the world who care about the military and appreciate what they do, let them know – the rank-and-file, the men and women – just let them know you appreciate them. That means a lot.'
'Guys in World War II and Vietnam were drafted,' he said. 'Today's military are all volunteers. Yet their suicide rate is higher. That's astounding.'
As with so much of what Wahl says, 12-step language infiltrates his crescendo.
'I'm not looking for perfection. I'm looking for improvement.'
Wahl's Facebook page advocates for connecting shelter pets with military veterans. 'When you save an animal, it's symbiotic,' he says: 'You're not only saving the animal, but the animal is saving you'
But wishing, a magician once wrote, doesn't make it so. That requires an election, and then some.
'I want to make this vividly clear: I am not a politician,' Wahl insisted. 'I don't feel like a politician. All I'm trying to do is help out with some things I know about. All this about running for Congress is very flattering, but that never entered my mind on its own.'
And if he runs, who would support him anyway?
'You got me,' he sighed. 'Whoever these people are who keep asking me to -- I take that back. A lot of the military would.'
