Talk-show host hails Web site buzz

A Web site to explore a U.S. Senate bid by Jerry Springer in 2004 has had 10,000 visitors.

Just six hours after Jerry Springer - the host of a raunchy television talk show who is considering a run for one of Ohio's two U.S. Senate seats - launched his Web site, it registered its 10,000th visitor.

One-tenth of those visiting had signed a petition urging him to run, Springer campaign strategist Dale Butland said.

A news story about the opening of the site was posted on the front page of The Drudge Report, an Internet site featuring stories of politics and fame. Then the site was mentioned on CNN's Inside Politics program.

Learning of the activity on the site during an interview in downtown Toledo, Mr. Springer leapt to his feet and shared a “high-five” with Mr. Butland across a conference table.

“This thing may be huge!” he said. “And no one knows what the political ramifications may be.”

Mr. Springer targets a national audience on the site, warning that “every right-wing extremist group and every threatened special interest group and every `Holier-than-thou' elite will pile on against us,” and that “I need a national base of small donors, added to whatever I can put in, to meet the challenge.”

- FRITZ WENZEL