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Move [Ventura's decision not to run] protects undefeated image
St. Paul Pioneer Press ^ | 6/19/02 | Joe Soucheray

Posted on 06/19/2002 6:30:04 AM PDT by Caleb1411

The two stories that broke Tuesday morning were seemingly related. In the one, it developed that the governor's son, Tyrel, was accused by displaced staff of the official residence that he occasionally turned the old place into an Animal House weekend at Faber College. In the other, the big man himself, Gov. Turnbuckle, announced that he would not seek another term as governor, for the most part, he said, to protect his family from the media.

In the Tyrel story, just enough hints and vague references were dropped to make you think that maybe Tyrel booked Otis Day and the Knights and that everybody up and down Summit Avenue was trying to figure out the words to "Louie, Louie.'' It was a nice touch, for example, to learn that something called an antique barley twist chair was allegedly broken in one of the weekend parties.

But a fellow reading that story closely has to conclude only one thing. A staff that was unceremoniously dumped during the budget shutdown of the mansion had too conveniently remembered that Tyrel would have friends drop by the mansion and that a pool cue was broken, that a fabled chair got wrecked and some linens had to be sent out to the laundry. Analyzed more closely, the charges against Tyrel didn't seem to amount to much more than the Perpich kids getting a ride to concerts by somebody on the state clock.

Put another way, there were no allegations that anything illegal had taken place.

Meanwhile, seething as only he can, Gov. Turnbuckle sought the refuge of his favorite radio home, Minnesota Public Radio. There he announced, with some theatrical weariness, that he had been the pioneer, that he had done his duty, that he had led the way and that he needed to protect his family from the ravages of an evil media.

Well, that is nonsense, of course. I am unaware of the media ever involving the governor's family in anything untoward. And it wasn't the media who convened a press conference to cluck tongues over the supposed antics of the governor's son. It was Dan Creed, the former manager of the residence. In fact, it is most often a disagreeable prospect to make sport of a public man's wife and children; it wasn't done at this newspaper.

Besides, with Turnbuckle bigger than life itself, who needed to worry about his wife or his kids? This man was manna from heaven if you are in the ink-stained wretch business, from his twisted syntax to his climbing into a wrestling ring on the heels of somebody called Mr. Ass, to his hauling an outdoors reporter into the inner sanctum and admonishing him that until he had hunted man he hadn't hunted.

That doesn't come along very often, folks. I mean, you can pray for it, just like you can pray to win the lottery, but it doesn't happen, which is another way of saying that a governor will never be more entertaining than this large, petulant and confoundingly sensitive giant who was right about half the things about half the time and usually by accident. The governor isn't running again for the only reason that he would never run again. He might lose. That wasn't a problem in 1998. His mythology was only half-built back then. Now it is fully fleshed out: Navy Seal, wrestler, mayor, movie actor and now governor. He has the street fighter's knack for knowing when to pack it in so that he might fight another day, and he has packed it in to protect a couple of things.

Yes, his family, certainly. No one here has ever doubted his loyalty to them, as a father and as a husband. But by not running, not losing, he chiefly protects the franchise, Jesse, the one-man show.

If he has you convinced that he is stepping down to protect his family from the jackals he always wanted to run over in his Navigator, that is all right with him. All he wants to say is that he has never been beaten.


TOPICS: Editorial; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: Minnesota
KEYWORDS: glassjawventura; jesseventura; minnesota; quitter

1 posted on 06/19/2002 6:30:04 AM PDT by Caleb1411
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To: Caleb1411
What's the "vibe" about Jesse's chances if he had run again? My gut feeling is that he would have had his head handed to him but I'm out here in NYS and so I don't exactly have my finger on the pulse of that state.
2 posted on 06/19/2002 6:35:01 AM PDT by Behind Liberal Lines
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The Pioneer Press's Nick Coleman also has a Jesse-themed column today: In Jesse Country, the hero has fallen: Voters who helped put the political renegade in office now say good riddance
3 posted on 06/19/2002 6:39:00 AM PDT by Caleb1411
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To: Behind Liberal Lines
I have the same gut feeling. As Nick Coleman [see the link I just posted] put it, "The bloom is off 'The Body.'"
4 posted on 06/19/2002 6:41:02 AM PDT by Caleb1411
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To: Caleb1411
Jesse proves that with hair, comes wisdom. He is a buffoon. He's the Rodney Daingerfield of politics.
5 posted on 06/19/2002 6:41:21 AM PDT by lonestar
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To: lonestar
Jesse proves that with hair, comes wisdom. . .

That's a frightening prospect: Jesse lets his hair grow out and becomes the revivified Samson of politics.

6 posted on 06/19/2002 6:50:04 AM PDT by Caleb1411
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To: Caleb1411
It's refreshing not to see a politician in it for life.
7 posted on 06/19/2002 6:52:01 AM PDT by BikerNYC
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To: Caleb1411
I think Jesse Ventura (an alias) has a serious ego problem. Perhaps he should visit the Clintons in Chappaqua or wherever they hold seances these days and see if the pair can exorcise the governor of his excessive ego. The reason I suggest the Clintons to do the exorcism -- they're about the only two people in the country with egos larger than Governor "Ventura."
8 posted on 06/19/2002 6:54:32 AM PDT by Theodore R.
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To: BikerNYC
It's refreshing not to see a politician in it for life.

For whatever the reason -- good or ignominious -- that's true. Now, could you please email your comment to Paul Wellstone, who piously promised to serve only two terms if we Minnesotans would elect and re-elect him?

9 posted on 06/19/2002 6:57:40 AM PDT by Caleb1411
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To: Theodore R.
The reason I suggest the Clintons to do the exorcism -- they're about the only two people in the country with egos larger than Governor "Ventura."

The lesser would definitely need the ministrations of the greater.

10 posted on 06/19/2002 6:59:55 AM PDT by Caleb1411
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To: Caleb1411
I think the only interesting thing that Jesse did was get the establishment folks motivated. It is fair to say that Norm Coleman is a better candidate today after having been embarrassed several years ago.

I know that he has a tendency to over-publicize it, but I respect him for being a SEAL (He is actually a SEAL). Many SEALs don't talk about being SEALs, but I don't think that I could blame him.

That was the only legitmate training/education that the guy got. He did a stint in community college and that was about it (not that a college education means that much...it is what you make of it). As well, the wrestling business certainly isn't the industry to prepare yourself for public service or being the executive of a state. Unless, of course, you plan on paying your state employees $15 a night and expecting them to risk permanent paralysis. I am sure that the State Employees Union would probably have something to say about that. Hmmmm...didn't Jesse basically do this a short while ago

11 posted on 06/19/2002 7:01:11 AM PDT by mattdono
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To: BikerNYC
While that is true, Jesse couldn't get re-elected even if he wanted to. I think that this is more of a way to exit with some dignity (though after Jesse was cavorting with John McCain/McLame/McInsane, I think he burned up the dignity reserve).

As the article notes, this move his to protect his election record.

There is even a word for this in the word of wrestling that Jesse is probably familiar with: a paper champion.

12 posted on 06/19/2002 7:07:13 AM PDT by mattdono
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To: mattdono
I think the only interesting thing that Jesse did was get the establishment folks motivated. It is fair to say that Norm Coleman is a better candidate today after having been embarrassed several years ago.

I sure hope so! "Boasting" two guys who occupy the left-most seats in the Senate, Minnesota needs to send Paul Wellstone back to a comparatively less detrimental (to the country) occupation: indoctrinating callow students at Carleton College.

13 posted on 06/19/2002 7:10:18 AM PDT by Caleb1411
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To: Caleb1411
I was about to predict Jessie would not run again and so his announcement was not a surprise. Odd things happen in Minnesota politics and they usualy happen in pairs.
Might we be rid of Jessie and Paul with a single vote ?
14 posted on 06/19/2002 7:27:36 AM PDT by Eric in the Ozarks
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To: Eric in the Ozarks
Odd things happen in Minnesota politics and they usualy happen in pairs. Might we be rid of Jessie and Paul with a single vote ?

We've suffered the big trifecta of oddity, to be sure: Paul, Jesse, and -- most recently -- Mark. Time to restore a little normalcy to this state.

15 posted on 06/19/2002 7:33:33 AM PDT by Caleb1411
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To: Caleb1411
We lived "up nort" in da Nort Star State (eh ?) for 16 years, raised our kid in Minnesota schools and generally found it a wonderful place to live.
Our impression of Minnesota government was (a) it was large and getting larger and (b)the 46 percent of the population that did not work for some governmental agency was supposed to support the 54 percent who did.
The single most amazing sign that both (a) and (b) were true came when I made a $50 contribution to the state representative serving my area. I got back $25 from the state !
16 posted on 06/19/2002 7:42:32 AM PDT by Eric in the Ozarks
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To: Behind Liberal Lines
I have never seen a bigger man with a more fragile ego that this goon. Minnesotans must be embarassed.
17 posted on 06/19/2002 7:49:36 AM PDT by Pylot
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To: Pylot
Actually I am doing just fine.
18 posted on 06/19/2002 8:12:09 AM PDT by wallcrawlr
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To: Caleb1411
Now, could you please email your comment to Paul Wellstone, who piously promised to serve only two terms if we Minnesotans would elect and re-elect him?

I try to tell all politicians that they should give it up after two terms. I get sick of hearing them talk.
19 posted on 06/19/2002 10:30:06 AM PDT by BikerNYC
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To: lonestar
Some more trash heading for the quieter and more private hills. He has reached the level of his own incomptence and has nothing more to offer. Between his having been a Navy Seal and now he has been inviscerated and defanged. I wonder what happened?
20 posted on 06/19/2002 10:41:44 AM PDT by wingnuts'nbolts
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