Jesse Ventura vs. Pat Buchanan……Any Guesses as to Who Wins?

My years in Minnesota for the most part coincided with Jesse Ventura’s tenure as governor.  That’s just one of many reasons I cherish those years.  His election in 1998 inspired me to blanket the state with my resume.  ‘If Minnesota can elect him,’ I thought ‘its bound to have a job somewhere for me.’

I even tried getting on with his administration.  That didn’t happen, but I did find a great job there.  As luck would have it, just a few weeks after I moved up there, I had the opportunity to meet him.

Wishes sometimes do come true.

Having said all that, I can’t say I agree with every aspect of Jesse’s political philosophy (for instance, funding of universities is not a priority of his), but on stuff like this, he’s one of the few elected officials at any level in this country to be willing to tell the religionist nutbags that government is not a tool of their religion.

With that, I point you to Crooks and Liars for the encounter between Jesse The Gov and Pat the Constipated on the issue of same-sex marriage.

 

VENTURA: “Well, first of all, I made a statement when I was governor and stand by it today. Love is bigger than government. Who the hell are we as a government to tell people who you can fall in love with? I think it‘s absurd that fact it‘s even being debated. “

Now, again – having praised Jesse, I do want to say that I hope he does not hop into the Minnesota Senate race this year as has been rumored.  He justifiably can’t stand the current occupant of what I still recognize as being Paul Wellstone’s seat – namely, Norm ’empty victory for a hollow man’ Coleman.  However, he also doesn’t have much use for Al Franken (as I said, I don’t share all of Jesse’s political philosophy), who seems poised to force Nahm to find a real job.

Jesse, I know it would be a step down, but could I suggest bopping over to Stillwater and forcing Michelle ‘Minnesota’s Katherine Harris’ Bachmann to find a real job instead?