Seems ironic that a guy who took as many lumps in the wrestling ring as Gov. Jesse "The Body" Ventura couldn't take a few shots from a band of pasty-faced, pigeon-chested journalists. Or maybe the rough-and-tumble world of Minnesota politics just got too much for him. Hard to tell, since Ventura wasn't really explaining his surprise declaration last week that he would not seek a second term.
Most people outside Minnesota only heard about him when he said something outrageous, like telling a Playboy magazine interviewer that he wanted to be reincarnated as a 38DD bra.
However, it should be noted that Ventura was not the disaster that his critics predicted after the former professional wrestler and talk-show host "shocked the world" with his upset win in 1998. He got high marks for restructuring the property tax system, promoting mass transit and pushing education. He surrounded himself with an able cabinet and got out of their way.
Unfortunately, he often not only got out of their way, but out of the state entirely, to do commentary for the overhyped XFL football league or to make numerous Hollywood appearances.
Ventura, like most governors in the late 1990s, benefited from a period of extraordinary American prosperity. But then the good times stopped, not only in Minnesota but everywhere, and Ventura ran into trouble.
Thousands of state employees went on strike for better wages, which Ventura said the state couldn't afford. He backed off his opposition to a public-subsidized stadium for the major-league baseball Minnesota Twins, rather than face the wrath of voters who didn't want the team to leave.
The truth was, he never really liked the job of politician. He didn't make many friends in the legislature and never warmed to the political horse-trading imperative to the job. He wanted it his way, now. The legislature responded by overriding his veto — a lot.
Still, Ventura remained a potent force, and polls showed that even though his popularity had slipped, he had a good shot at re-election. But "you've got to have your heart and soul into these types of jobs," Ventura said.
From a reporter's point of view, he was great copy, a superstar politician in a land more accustomed to the Walter Mondales of the world.
So what's next? "I will rise up somewhere and cause some heartache," he said.
We'll miss you, too, Jesse.
