How do you spell relief? This way:
It’s J-e-s-s-e V-e-n-t-u-a-‘-s p-o-l-i-t-c-a-l c-a-r-e-e-r n-e-v-e-r w-e-n-t a-n-y f-u-r-t-h-e-r.
Former Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura has pledged he will move to Mexico after a St. Paul judge threw out his lawsuit against the TSA. The Daily News reports Ventura’s suit alleged “that airport scans and pat-downs amounted to unreasonable search and seizure.” “I will never stand for a national anthem again. I will turn my back and I will raise a fist,” Ventura said. [NYDN]
Realize: here was a guy that many of us who are (finally I can use the word where it is not used in employer spin) disgruntled with BOTH political parties at least somewhere along the line felt was an independent voice, someone who didn’t belong to either party who could be a kind of role model for others discouraged with the Ds and Rs.
When you read this quote you feel a sense of relief that he in fact did not go on to higher office. It sounds like something written by a troll in a blog comments section (the kind of troll we don’t see much anymore in TMV comments).
On the other hand, the way TSA pats people down, sometimes when they pat you down due to their surprise touching you DO raise a fist.
Sadly to say, both Ventura and Arnold Schwarezenegger did not to exactly do credit to the concept that you could get people in office who don’t belong to either party or run as a member of either party who are competent, politically astute and have some sense of balance. In fact, for years they’ll be pointed to as examples of the failure — in political and administrative terms — of independents who gain major political office.
On the other hand: there is Michael Bloomberg.
One step forward and two steps back.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.