The Good News, The Good News And The Good News
By Mitch Berg
The good news – we don’t have Jesse Ventura to kick around anymore:
Although his appearance on CNN’s “Larry King Live” had all the trappings of an incipient campaign, Ventura squelched weeks of hinting that he was planning to enter the arena against Coleman, whose pro-Iraq war record he despises, and Franken, whom he has characterized as an opportunist for returning to Minnesota after years away to run for office.
Ventura would be the precisely one person in the world who should not call Franken an “opportunist”.
Oh, yeah – and the good news:
Late Monday, Dean Barkley said he might enter the race today.
“I certainly am considering it,” he said. Ventura appointed Barkley to fill out the late Sen. Paul Wellstone’s unfinished term in 2002.
While there might be fifteen or twenty Republicans who could get fooled by a Ventura candidacy, Barkley will draw not a single GOP vote. He’ll be yet another anchor around Franken’s neck.
The other bit of good news? Priscilla, Lord Faris’ candidacy. Franken will have to fight Barkley on is “right”, and Lord Faris on his left.
And the other, other bit of good news? Ventura could still still take the plunge:
The candidate filing period ends at 5 p.m. today.
Ventura slyly left open the possibility of running if God spoke to him before then — one of several comments he made suggesting that religion has an undue influence in politics.
And I have to confess – it would be so wonderful to have his big, bloated ego to kick around:
The reason he isn’t going to run, he said, is the media. His daughter doesn’t want the attention his candidacy would focus on her, he said, and he didn’t relish having his motives unfairly attacked and second-guessed.
You mean, you don’t want bloggers claiming that you’re only doing this for publicity?
Yeah. Good call.
“I was close to doing it,” he told King. “One part of me wanted to very badly. But when I spoke to my daughter and … she feared what would happen to her that happened to her brother, that put me over the top.
“I thought, I will not put my family under that type of position again.”
July 15th, 2008 at 9:01 am
The lawyer lady…how is she different the Hatch, Humphry, Cerresi and all the look-alike Democrats who have failed at state-wide office recently?
July 15th, 2008 at 9:09 am
how is she different the Hatch, Humphry, Cerresi
she thinks of people who call themselves “progressive” as centrists – she runs well to the left of Hatch, Humphry, Cerresi et al
July 15th, 2008 at 9:28 am
I wish Jesse would run. He’s got that real charisma and leadership thing that you either have or you don’t. And he does march to no one else’s tune – just his own. All that would have to be done is to straighten Jesse out on a couple of issues and he’d be fine.
And the Senate would be perfect for him! The governor has to have regular contact with people (and reporters). A senator can disappear for months and nobody realizes they were gone. Come on, Jesse! It’s the perfect gig. File, damn you. File!
July 15th, 2008 at 10:15 am
“I thought, I will not put my family under that type of position again.”
I think he’s talking about a half-nelson.
July 15th, 2008 at 11:42 am
[…] Priscilla, Lord Faris (stole that one from Mitch) announced yesterday that she would challenge Al Franken for the DFL nomination in the primary this fall. I was listening to MPR and heard Lord Faris say that she that she wouldn’t run if Franken was ahead of Coleman in the polls (I’ll post the audio clip if MPR puts it online). […]
July 16th, 2008 at 10:53 am
Look for John McCain to woo Ventura supporters by claiming he avoided telling his captors the names of his squadron mates by using famous rasslers:
“Chief Jay Strongbow, Classy Fred Blassie, Andre the Giant, Haystacks Calhoun, Rowdy Roddie Piper…”
July 16th, 2008 at 11:07 am
Now that was funny.