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Joe Soucheray: After trial victory, will Jesse do the right thing?
PioneerPress ^ | 8/2/14 | Joe Soucheray

Posted on 08/02/2014 9:00:07 PM PDT by ButThreeLeftsDo

We have been reminded of the one thing we knew with absolute certainty, that Jesse Ventura is a winner. He has been a professional wrestler, a mayor, a radio talk show host, the governor of the state, a television star, a best-selling author and even, for a brief spell, a Harvard professor, although a photo taken at his academic desk showed one Post-it note stuck to a blank computer screen.

And now, Jesse Ventura has won again, probably as big a shock as his election win to the state's highest office in November 1998. Jesse Ventura won his defamation case against the estate of the late Chris Kyle, the estate being Kyle's widow, Taya, and the couple's two young children. The jury was stuck for days, but finally, in a bit of jury rigging, literally, the two sides decided to accept a less-than-unanimous verdict and it came back 8-2 for Ventura.

Ventura was awarded $1.8 million, $500,000 for damage to his career and reputation and $1.3 million for unjust enrichment, the money the jury believed Kyle made by exploiting Ventura's name and reputation.

In all, $1.8 million.

It is hard for me to understand how the jury believed that a page and a half in the book called "American Sniper,'' Kyle's autobiography, even had enough words to total $1.3 million, but I was not on the jury and they obviously struggled mightily to come up with that figure.

It is also hard for me to understand how Ventura believes that his reputation has been restored. There were those of us at the start of the trial who said, "What reputation?'' As governor, Ventura stuffed himself into an ill-fitting referee's shirt and presided over a professional wrestling match at Target Center, briefly sharing the ring with a character dubbed Mr. Ass. Then he served as guest referee of a title match between Mankind, Triple H and Stone Cold Steve Austin.

You think Jesse did that for free? It was the World Wrestling Federation's SummerSlam pay-for-view event that netted God knows how much. Those who know him well call him Mr. Midas. He wasn't governor for even a full eight months before he started to cash in on that celebrity status.

As governor, he was the television commentator for the short-lived XFL. You think he did that for free?

Why, the litany of his classless behavior is endless. He called the members of the media jackals and wished that he could mow them down in his big government-provided SUV. There isn't a conspiracy theory out there that he hasn't embraced. And on and on and on.

That was the public Jesse Ventura, the Jesse Ventura that seemed to be all act, but a calculating, shrewd and winning act, always winning.

But the defamation trial was not about him getting more money. He said that. He said it wasn't about the money. And Taya Kyle said it wasn't about the money.

Then what was it? It was about Jesse maintaining his membership in a very exclusive club, the brotherhood of SEALs and frogmen. He cherishes that membership. Other than his family, it might be the only sincere belief that he has, that he was and always will be a member of that exclusive brotherhood. He could not abide the fellows in that rarified lodge believing that he had been punched by a fellow brother or that he spoke ill of them. There were brotherhood codes at stake here, on both sides.

And now that our judicial system has worked its will, Jesse has won again.

But did he really win?

The Jesse we all want to believe in will do what has to be done to protect his membership in the lodge of the nation's most courageous fighting men.

He said that he won what he was after -- his cleared name. And because Taya and her children are part of the same family of exclusive brothers, he will not accept the money. I am loath to spend other people's money, but this is different. He will leave it with the Kyle family.

It is enough that the page and a half in Kyle's book will be removed. Enough, he will announce, that the jury found him to be telling the truth when he said that Kyle didn't hit him and that Jesse didn't bad-mouth the SEALs, whom he loves.

He will not accept the money. He is a winner. He has always been a winner in everything he does.

He will win again with his statement of grace and humility.


TOPICS: Local News; Military/Veterans
KEYWORDS: chriskyle; jesse; jessevventura; kyle
Classic Soucheray.

Tongue, firmly in cheek.

1 posted on 08/02/2014 9:00:07 PM PDT by ButThreeLeftsDo
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To: ButThreeLeftsDo

Why on Earth would the defense agree to anything less than a unanimous verdict?


2 posted on 08/02/2014 9:01:37 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum ("The man who damns money obtained it dishonorably; the man who respects it earned it." --Ayn Rand)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum
A previous post of minel <>
3 posted on 08/02/2014 9:05:44 PM PDT by Dr. Bogus Pachysandra ( Ya can't pick up a turd by the clean end!)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

It’s a mystery to me.


4 posted on 08/02/2014 9:08:02 PM PDT by ButThreeLeftsDo (Please $upport Free Republic.)
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To: ButThreeLeftsDo
Ventura is a winner? There they go, changing the definitions of our words again.
5 posted on 08/02/2014 9:08:04 PM PDT by GILTN1stborn ( #rememberbenghazi #extortion17 #impeachobama)
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To: GILTN1stborn

A winner in his own mind, not Joe’s.


6 posted on 08/02/2014 9:09:36 PM PDT by ButThreeLeftsDo (Please $upport Free Republic.)
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To: Dr. Bogus Pachysandra

That post. I have no idea why it disappeared. The use of the arrow?
“Jesse is sure a fur ball! He used to come on the Mike Trivisanno Show on WTAM here in Cleveland. He called himself “Mr. Blue.” They disguised his voice electronically, but,,,, he has such distinctive mannerisms, etc., that it was easy to tell just who Mr. Blue was! I’ve spent lots of time in recording studios, and I knew it was him after hearing one sentence. I emailed Mike and asked him when he was going to have Jesse “Blue” on again. No answer, but the next time he was on, they altered his voice even more!
If he comes on again, I’m going to call in and call him Jesse. But they’ll just bleep it out!”


7 posted on 08/02/2014 9:12:54 PM PDT by Dr. Bogus Pachysandra ( Ya can't pick up a turd by the clean end!)
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To: ButThreeLeftsDo

In the famous words of John McEnroe “you have got to be kidding me”


8 posted on 08/02/2014 9:46:42 PM PDT by Georgia Girl 2 (The only purpose o f a pistol is to fight your way back to the rifle you should never have dropped.)
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To: GILTN1stborn

Jessie should ask for One Dollar—the whole thing was to clear his name—anything else just makes him look like a jerk.


9 posted on 08/02/2014 10:47:13 PM PDT by Forward the Light Brigade (Into the Jaws of H*ll Onward! Ride to the sound of the guns!)
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To: ButThreeLeftsDo

Expecting the kind of guy who sues an American hero’s widow to do the right thing is more than a little optimistic. We all know what is really going to happen here, and no decent person will have any respect for Jesse after that.


10 posted on 08/03/2014 5:34:48 AM PDT by Pollster1 ("Shall not be infringed" is unambiguous.)
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To: Forward the Light Brigade

He was and is a jerk.


11 posted on 08/03/2014 6:30:16 AM PDT by Eric in the Ozarks (Rip it out by the roots.)
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To: ButThreeLeftsDo

The jury most have been composed of a bunch of Obama voters. Only such a group would believe Ventura’s word over that of the late, great Chris Kyle.


12 posted on 08/03/2014 6:44:14 AM PDT by 3Fingas (Sons and Daughters for Freedom and Rededication to the Principles of the U.S. Constitution)
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