Sen.-elect Angus King, I-Maine, center, the former governor of Maine, arrives on Capitol Hill in Washington, Nov. 13,2012. (Image: J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo)

Spurred by a whiff of news that Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, wants a caucus for senators with facial hair, the American Mustache Institute is pushing King to make good on his recent comment.

National Journal reported last week that King is mulling the notion of a facial hair caucus. "Maybe that can be the beginning to solving the sequestration," King was quoted as saying.

Now, the American Mustache Institute, brainchild of St. Louis-based marketing consultant and occasional Forbes columnist Aaron Perlut, has issued an open letter to King calling on him to make this probably nonserious aside a reality, writing:

Indeed, in spite of our trepidation about creating a segregated environment on Capital Hill - ruggedly handsome Senators and Congressmen living a sexually dynamic Mustached Americans sitting in separate rooms from the clean-shaven mortals who fail to reach your level of intellectual excellence - the American Mustache Institute and Mustached American Community at-large welcome plans for the new caucus to represent the interests of all Americans with facial hair.

Without question, for too long have the concerns of our mutual constituency, people of Mustached American heritage, been ignored by a bare-faced and meek Congress.

King's office has not yet responded to a request for comment on the possibility of a facial-hair caucus. Likely members would include Oklahoma GOP Sen. Tom Coburn, who has a beard, and North Dakota GOP Sen. John Hoeven, who sports a mustache.