Jesse "The Ex" Ventura -

Jesse "The Ex" Ventura - The Pioneer Press' Jim Ragsdale is one of the Twin Cities' best political reporters.

And this piece in the PiPress, on the unravelling of the Ventura administration, is a great one.

And I like this part, especially because it's what I've been saying for the last year about Ventura and the "Independence" party:

Ventura supporter Mark Jumer, a 42-year-old meat cutter, was quoted four years ago exulting about Ventura's victory.

Not anymore.

Ventura's moon-lighting for pay didn't bother him. Neither did the governor's controversial comments — Jumer likes someone who tells it straight. What irked him was Ventura's inability to work with the system and with the media, and to be the moderating force government needs.

Jumer said he believes Ventura blew a "perfect opportunity" to build consensus from the center. He called Ventura's frequent outbursts evidence that he couldn't cope with the give-and-take. He and others fear the idea of a third-party renaissance is now a national joke, courtesy of Jesse Ventura.

"I really thought it was going to be the start of a movement," Jumer said. "I think his first two years, he did OK. Then in his last two years, it just got to be almost like a three-ring circus. I really thought he was going to be able to bring people together. I believe now that he chased people away."

Jumer voted for Republican Pawlenty this time, as did most of Jesse Country. The result suggests Ventura was a one-time anomaly, a product of his own fame and the generosity of voters during a prosperous economy. But he couldn't transfer that popularity to the candidate who most agreed with him — Tim Penny, who had a dismal showing in most of Ventura's strongholds.

Ventura was not swept into office on a wave of admiration for wonks!

Here's another quote:

The last stop on Ventura's February 2000 bus tour was a tree-shaded municipal office building off Interstate 94 near St. Cloud. Then it housed the newly incorporated "City of Ventura," a name town leaders chose to draw attention to their boundary dispute with neighboring St. Cloud.

Ventura went there to promote his plan for a one-house Legislature, and the "City of Ventura" became a symbol of the need for legislative reform. A House-Senate conference committee had scuttled a negotiated solution of the boundary dispute, and Ventura joined city officials in saying those shenanigans would end in a single-house Legislature.

Today, Ventura's dream of a one-house Legislature remains on the shelf, never even advancing to a floor vote. And the "City of Ventura" reverted to being the "City of St. Augusta" in an overwhelming public referendum. Mayor Ollie Mondloch, a 1998 Ventura voter, said the German-Catholic community never forgave Ventura for calling organized religion "a sham and a crutch for weak-minded people" in a 1999 Playboy magazine article.

"He was intolerant about people questioning him … that's not a trait you can go far with," said Mondloch.

Read the article - the insider stuff is amazing, and tends to confirm the views of a few media insiders of my acquaintance - who think Ventura was one of the most arrogant, stuck-on-self people in all of Minnesota politics (or, leaving aside Keillor, the media as well).

So these last four years have been interesting - in the same sense that car wrecks and brawls at hockey games are "interesting", too.

Posted by Mitch at December 29, 2002 11:06 AM