Skubick: Roger Kahn mulling run against Sen. Carl Levin

Will he or won't he?

Saginaw Republican  Sen. Roger Kahn is ushering the governor's budget through the state senate, he is chairing a committee to scrounge up a few bucks to fix the roads, he's also hammering away at ushering 400,000 uninsured folks into the Medicaid system and in his spare time he works as a heart doc.

Now he's thinking about running against Carl Levin for the U.S. Senate.

How many gallons of Red Bull does this guy guzzle everyday?

"I'm looking at it closely.  I've had several folks telling me to run," he discloses before running off to another meeting in the capitol.

That's not a yes, but it's not a no, yet he doesn't have the time, by his own admission, to form "a team for decision making."  When would they meet at midnight?

Mr. Kahn  is a likeable and approachable chap with a grand sense of humor which was on full display the other day.

Correspondents always want to know if potential candidates have the "fire in the gut" to meander all over the state to run against an entrenched incumbent who has not lost an election since they started counting votes.

"Let's look at your tummy," the snooty reporter began. "Do you have the fire in the gut to do this?"

Looking at his large girth, he smiles, "I have plenty of tummy."  How can you not laugh out loud?

Then he answers, "Indeed, yes" he's got it.

Prove it.

He flew to Marquette a week ago to give a speech at the Marquette Economic Club in the dead of winter.  He couldn't fly back.  Apparently they get a lot of snow up there.  So he drove back and got home at 4 a.m.

So much for the fire in the belly question.

But what about Mr. Levin, if he decides to run, surely Mr. Kahn is smart enough to know, he should not run.

"I haven't made that decision," he asserts while adding, it does not bother him "one iota" if Mr. L. is in or out.

He does believe that Mr. Levin has been there too long and it's time "for him to consider a rocking chair."  Sometime Mr. Kahn obviously has no time for himself.