Schweitzer goes off-script on Cantor, Feinstein

Former Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer (D), who says he’s looking at a presidential run, sounded less than presidential in sizing up outgoing House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.).

Schweitzer made off-the-cuff remarks on both lawmakers that hint at how his notoriously shoot-from-the-hip style could get him in trouble as a candidate.

“Don’t hold this against me, but I’m going to blurt it out. How do I say this … men in the South, they are a little effeminate,” Schweitzer told National Journal on the night that Cantor lost. “They just have effeminate mannerisms. If you were just a regular person, you turned on the TV, and you saw Eric Cantor talking, I would say — and I’m fine with gay people, that’s all right — but my gaydar is 60-70 percent. But he’s not, I think, so I don’t know. Again, I couldn’t care less. I’m accepting.”

He also went off-script when talking about the National Security Agency’s spying program, using a rather colorful metaphor to describe complaints from Feinstein, the chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, about NSA spying.

“She was the woman who was standing under the streetlight with her dress pulled all the way up over her knees, and now she says, ‘I’m a nun,’ when it comes to this spying!” Schweitzer said, knocking her for being too close to the NSA. “I mean, maybe that’s the wrong metaphor — but she was all in!”

Some Democrats who don’t like former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton hope Schweitzer runs, and the firebrand former governor insists he’s giving it serious thought. But his unscripted style could be a major problem if he does take the plunge.