*Off topic*: Politics is sure getting strange. For amusement only.
Jesse (The Body) Ventura becomes the Governing Body
by ROBERT RUSSO
ST. PAUL, Minn. (CP) - Now that he's the governor-elect rather than a villainous former wrestler, "The Body" will go by a sobriquet befitting his loftier pursuits. "I'm no longer Jesse ‘The Body,'" Minnesota's new governor proclaimed Wednesday. "I'm Jesse ‘The Mind' Ventura."
Minnesotans awoke Wednesday to the realization that they had elected as governor a gravelly voiced, high school graduate who made his name as a pro wrestler and outrageously dressed announcer before turning to acting in such movies as Predator.
Many of them were delighted. "At least they won't be talking about our weather anymore," said Minneapolis city councilman Jim Niland. "This is progress."
Some predicted The Body would strike a blow nationally. "It isn't over yet," said pilot Donald McKay. "It's going to be two-falls-out-of-three against those Bush boys."
Ventura, a former Navy SEAL, bar bouncer, gang member, talk show host,
actor, and - of course - one-half of the World Wrestling Federation
heavyweight tag-team champions, became The Governing Body after winning a lively three-way contest as the Reform party candidate.
"The first item on my agenda is a week's vacation," a weary Ventura told supporters Wednesday, in a baritone that sounds like he was weaned on crushed glass.
There was one other score Ventura had to settle during his last stint as a noon-hour talk-show host: piledriving a talk-show rival who predicted his defeat.
"I hope you're listening out there Chicken Hawk," Ventura growled. "I'm renaming you Minnesota's Mr. Wrong."
Ventura, 47, turned up for a meeting Wednesday with out-going Governor
Arne Carlson in a crisply tailored double-breasted suit rather than the sneakers and camouflaged pants he favored during the campaign.
He is now the head of an enterprise that does $23 billion US in annual
business. And despite the shaved head, earrings and outrage, Ventura insisted he's no political rebel.
"I'm not a rebel. I'm a veteran," Ventura told reporters.
Asked what he was going to do about dispensing his state's $2-million
surplus, Ventura begged off, saying he was too tired to come up with a
concise answer. "I'm not going to step in it."
As a wrestler, Ventura could be pure nasty.
As an announcer, his wardrobe was always eye-catching - and ugly. But his succinct commentary made him even more famous in the wrestling world - he could describe a figure-four leglock as if he was dissecting Hamlet.
A native of Minneapolis, Ventura went into politics after wrestling, serving as mayor of Brooklyn Park, Minn., from 1991 to 1995.
His victory Tuesday swept aside the scion of one of Minnesota's most revered political families, Hubert Humphrey III and a favoured Republican and propelled him to the pinnacle of America's pop culture mountain: David Letterman's Top Ten List.
One of the reasons Ventura won, according to Letterman? "Combining the wise economic stewardship of Hulk Hogan and the progressive policies of Jimmy (Superfly) Snuka."
Ventura's election caught the attention of the White House, even as aides tried to figure out exactly what signal voters were sending by choosing a a hulking 250-pound ex-wrestler as governor.
"I think that you're going to have a lot of politicians spending time in gyms now," President Bill Clinton said.
Political experts and pollsters made as much sense of Ventura's victory. None of them predicted it. Not a single opinion poll had him in first place.
Steven Schier, chairman of the political science department at Carleton College in Northfield, Minn., said Ventura put together an unusual coalition of young, unionized, pro-choice and pro-gun voters.
This is by no means a classic political union, but Schier said it is one that draws on malcontents throughout Minnesota, Schier said.
"Jesse is not one of those pinstriped, weaselly politicians," said Schier. "This is a rejection of salon liberals and bible-thumping conservatives from the Democratic and Republican parties."
The local punditocracy derided him and his campaign, accusing him of being unencumbered by ideas.
Candidates from those parties considered Ventura such an amusing novelty that they deemed him unworthy of serious criticism.
That was a mistake.
The former James Janos, graduate of Minneapolis's Roosevelt High School, connected with voters who felt disenfranchised.
His gritty, working-class appeal struck a chord even if his wrestling career made him a millionaire.
Some of the beer drinkers wearing seed caps and open plaid shirts over "Retaliate in ‘98" T-shirts were still lounging around the Radisson hotel where Ventura supporters celebrated in Stroh's style into Wednesday morning.
"I voted for him for sure," said 54-year-old Bernard DeSmet, a welder who admired Ventura's candour, and his mix of fiscally conservative and socially progressive views.
"With Jesse, what you see is what you get. I believe he will do what he says he will."
© The Canadian Press, 1998 |
