A Whistle-Blower's Wish

By Maggie Sieger

The FBI's most famous whistle-blower wants to go to Capitol Hill. Coleen Rowley, who retired last December three years after exposing the agency's investigative lapses before 9/11, tells TIME she's laying out a campaign strategy for a run at Minnesota's Second Congressional District seat. She'll meet this week with the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in Washington to discuss how much money it can contribute to the $2 million war chest she expects she'll need in an effort to unseat Republican John Kline. Though Rowley, 50, would start as a distinct underdog in the heavily Republican district (Kline won a second term last year with 56% of the vote), Steven Schier, political science professor at Carleton College, says Rowley might surprise people. "She'll attract a lot of money because she'll be seen as a credible candidate due to her FBI background," he says. "She's fairly conservative for a Democrat, and that makes sense in this district. But it will be a very tough race."

Rowley, who first toyed with the idea of running in 2004, objects to Kline's support of the war in Iraq and his "lockstep" voting with President Bush and she vows to bring "personal responsibility and authenticity" to Capitol Hill. But she's still wary of political consultants who have advised her to apply makeup, upgrade her wardrobe and update her hairstyle. "It's just my gut instinct that it's all wrong for me," she says. "It's not who I am." Rowley, who since retirement has been spending time with her husband Ross and training for five triathlons she's entered this summer, says she'll decide within the next two weeks. "What's the worst that could happen?" she asks. "I lose and get humiliated." -By Maggie Sieger