Alec Bladwin blasts Texan senator

Hollywood actor Alec Baldwin has launched a scathing attack on US President George W Bush's Republican Party, branding right-wing politicians "self-serving scoundrels".

The Pearl Harbour star, who is a staunch Democrat, posted an essay on American website HuffingtonPost.com specifically aimed at Texan Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson.

But he compares recent Republican leaders to the party's historical icons, and they fall seriously short in Baldwin's opinion.

He writes: "My question for today is: 'Why are contemporary Republicans so full of it?' How did the party of Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt and General Eisenhower get taken over by such lying, thieving, self-serving scoundrels?"