Al Pires — the Pigford “black famers settlement” attorney made famous when Andrew Breitbart gave him an intellectual beatdown on John Stossel’s Fox News show last year — would like to be the next Senator from Delaware. However, the erstwhile candidate is off to a rough start. After initially attempting to run as an unaffiliated candidate, he was having trouble getting the signatures needed, so he recently switched to become the candidate for the Delaware Independent Party. 

As the CapeGazette.com reports:

Pires was unanimously selected as the Delaware Independent Party candidate for U.S. Senate at the party’s annual convention in Bridgeville, July 15.  In a press release, Pires said, “Their confidence is appreciated, and I am thrilled to be on the ballot.  I will work hard and defeat Tom Carper and the corrupt system he represents.”

Senator Carper’s representatives see it differently, obviously, saying:

Mr. Pires failed miserably to achieve the first, single-most basic goal of his campaign, which was to convince just one percent of Delaware voters to sign his petition to get on the ballot as an unaffiliated candidate.  Now he’s changed his voter registration and is attempting to distract voters with a sad and transparent smear campaign.

What is that smear campaign? Pires has also came under fire for stating that he thought the “most important issue in the race” for Senator wasn’t jobs or the economy but instead was the health of Senator Tom Carper. Pires has suggested that Carper may be hiding an illness but as an editorial from Delaware Online states:

Pires offered no proof. Just assertions.

Anyone who has run across Carper in one of the Wilmington-area Y’s won’t say he has health problems. Nor would anyone who follows his schedule as he moves up and down the state for an unending number of ribbon cuttings and chicken dinners.

The accusation is a little much. But Pires made them.

Pires was undaunted and even seems to have randomly felt the need to mention he’s smoked marijuana in the 1960s, telling CapeGazette.com:

Pires said he was surprised people responded angrily to his comments about Carper’s health.  “I think I’m entitled to find out if he’s healthy,” Pires said.

Pires said he plans to publish his own most recent medical examination on his website, 36yearsisenough.com.  “I’m asking Carper to do the same,” he said.

“I don’t take any medications, I don’t do any drugs,” Pires said.  “The last time I used any drugs, I smoked grass when I was in college.  Anyone who said he didn’t smoke grass in the 60s is a pathological liar.”

Note to Mr. Pires : we’ve seen your current hairstyle and we take you at your word.