…when the Ventura “Independence” Party in Minnesota finally falls below that magical 5% mark, loses “Major Party” status (which grants it an automatic place on the ballot and a seat at debates), and we never have to hear from hamsters like Dean Barkley ever again.

While I’ve consistently labelled the IP “DFL Lite” – largely accurately – the party’s roots trace back to the old “Reform” party, the last fallout of Ross Perot’s brief political heyday.  And some – a tiny few – of the candidates the IP has put forward have actually been mildly interesting; Jim Gibson, the 2000 Senate candidate who ran against Rod Grams and Brave Sir Mark Dayton, was a thoughtful candidate with a lot of positions that could attract a conservative – indeed, had Grams been significantly ahead in the polls that year (he lost to Brave Sir Mark), I thought about voting for Gibson.  Lars Ulrich Jack Uldrich, the IP candidate who lost the party’s Senate endorsement to Barkley, calls himself a former Republican; I’ve talked with him, and he’s got a few positions that make sense (along with plenty of IP detritus).

But Barkley’s the one the IP is putting out there for Senate.  I talked with Senator Barkley (“Governor” Ventura appointed him to fill the late Paul Wellstone’s seat for two months in 2002, petulantly refusing to give the recently-elected Norm Coleman a head start in office) briefly last night on Marty Owings’ show on Blog Talk Radio. 

I asked him to square his current platform – the one he’s pimping in the debates, which is all sorts of high/mighty talk about fiscal restraint – with the only record the “Independence” Party actually has, the four years of the Ventura Administration, in which Barkley and Tim Penny did most of the thinking, and during which the Ventura Administration turned most of Minnesota’s surpluses into permanent spending, booming the budget by 28% in two years.

Barkley’s response?  “What were you smoking?”  As I tried to focus on actual history, Barkley yelled over me with a trail of peevish ad-homina.

Later, when asked about his Iraq policy, he responded he wanted out “as soon as possible”.  I asked him how he judges the term “possible”; what would make this withdrawal “possible”, according to “Senator”, Senator Dean Barkley. 

For that, I got more ad-homina – to which I responded “I think you’re too brittle to be a Senator; if you think I’m a pain in the ass, imagine when you’re sitting across the table from Vladimir Putin”. 

His only response?  A Sarah Palin joke. 

So OK, all you “Independence” Party people out there (and thanks to Jesse Ventura’s eternal, dumb coattails and no other reason whatsoever, you do continue to poll better than the Libertarians, the Natural Law and Constitution parties); how is it that he is still in public life?

Oh, yeah – Barkley, a lawyer, said he didn’t give or take PAC money when he was working as a lobbyist.  Perhaps; although I’m wondering if he’s not parsing his words a little narrowly.

This entry was posted by by Mitch Berg on Monday, October 20th, 2008 at 7:29 am and is filed under Campaign '08, Minnesota Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.