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Learn more about the Jesse Ventura's Reform Party at barnesandnoble.com
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Portrait of a political "pit bull"
By Russ Baker
Rep. Dan Burton, who called President Clinton a "scumbag," has a few questions to answer about his own behavior
(12/22/98)

R E C E N T L Y
That wasn't foreplay, that was a four-poster!
By Lori Leibovich
'Don't act like a bully.' In a full-trial impeachment, the questions won't be for the squeamish
(01/08/99)
Back from the brink
By Joshua Micah Marshall
A Senate compromise on the impeachment trial ends the partisan bickering, for now
(01/08/99)
The culture of prosecution
By Bruce Shapiro
President Clinton is the victim of a tough-on-crime mentality that has trivialized the rights of the accused
(01/08/99)
Impeachment diary
By Anonymous
A senior Senate aide keeps busy by dishing the dirt on dealmaking, perjury and free food
(01/07/99)
Lott's losing control
By Joshua Micah Marshall
Impeachment proceedings in the Senate could get as ugly as in the House
(01/06/99)
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The day after my trip to Anoka, I met with Gov. Ventura at the Capitol and asked him if he knew why he had done so well in the blue-collar suburbs. "I don't know, I don't know," he said. "All we did was go off of past numbers" -- places where Ross Perot had done well and Dean Barkley, a co-founder of the Minnesota Reform Party, had run well in two Senate campaigns -- "and said these are counties we can take and take strongly." Ventura's campaign strategists targeted most of their on-the-ground efforts and advertising there. Ventura's honest answer, and his insistence that as the state's top executive he now has to govern "for all of Minnesota," suggests that he may not understand the full nature of his appeal. Or given his libertarian, entrepreneurial leanings, he may not feel comfortable with the implications of leading a working-class movement. (On the other hand, when he spotted the headline on one of my earlier articles that I had handed him -- "Can an anti-establishment, working-class populist go all the way?" -- he read it aloud and answered in his deep voice, "Oh yeah!")
Ventura seems far more at ease casting himself as the guardian of the hopes of a new generation. In his inaugural remarks, he talked a lot about young people. In the name of "these new young people, this generation that came on board, and yes, might well have elected me," he called on the state's politicians to "put down the partisan party politics and look at the bigger picture. We cannot fail, we must not fail, because if we do, we could lose this generation, and we dare not let that happen." His first public appearance the next day was before an overflow crowd of students at the University of Minnesota campus, where he repeated his promise to reduce class size in secondary schools and stressed the importance of students becoming more self-reliant. "If you're smart enough to be [in college], you ought to be smart enough to figure out how to pay for it."
Comments like those have some observers here likening Ventura to Reagan, which may yet turn out to be an accurate comparison. I asked him if he worried about suggestions coming from some quarters that he seemed heartless. "Heartless? You mean, people standing on their own two feet is heartless? People not looking at the government as their parent is heartless? I would say to them, pick up the Constitution of the United States and tell me where it says that welfare is a right."
Do you think there should be no social safety net? I asked. "Absolutely not, absolutely not," he responded. But some people are nervous about you, I said, because they're not hearing that commitment to a safety net. "Well, I'm just giving them a bigger message. Why do you think I'm lecturing this new generation of young people? ... I can be an influence on them to not be dependent on government. I can't change the world, but I can certainly influence a generation that voted for me in some manner."
It would be silly to try to predict where this will all lead. No doubt the halo surrounding Ventura will fade as his administration starts to stake out its policies and the neophyte politician makes some inevitable missteps. The Reform Party will grow and try to run a slate of legislative candidates in 2000, at which point it will be possible to say for sure if Minnesota has a full-blown multiparty system. By then it will also be clearer how Reformers in government reconcile their libertarian, fiscally conservative, working-class and anti-elitist impulses.
Outside the temperature is minus 17. But inside, a long-frozen part of the body politic has begun to thaw out. Things can only get more interesting if the warming trends continue.
SALON | Jan. 11, 1999
Micah L. Sifry is a New York writer who is researching the prospects of America's third parties, supported by a grant from the Open Society Institute.

T A B L E+T A L K Hillary vs. Liddy in 2000? Discuss rumors of a political wife showdown in the Politics area of Table Talk ___________________ Learn more about the Jesse Ventura's Reform Party at barnesandnoble.com ___________________ Portrait of a political "pit bull" By Russ Baker Rep. Dan Burton, who called President Clinton a "scumbag," has a few questions to answer about his own behavior (12/22/98) R E C E N T L Y That wasn't foreplay, that was a four-poster! By Lori Leibovich 'Don't act like a bully.' In a full-trial impeachment, the questions won't be for the squeamish (01/08/99) Back from the brink By Joshua Micah Marshall A Senate compromise on the impeachment trial ends the partisan bickering, for now (01/08/99) The culture of prosecution By Bruce Shapiro President Clinton is the victim of a tough-on-crime mentality that has trivialized the rights of the accused (01/08/99) Impeachment diary By Anonymous A senior Senate aide keeps busy by dishing the dirt on dealmaking, perjury and free food (01/07/99) Lott's losing control By Joshua Micah Marshall Impeachment proceedings in the Senate could get as ugly as in the House (01/06/99) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Browse the Newsreal Archives - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
		WORKING CLASS HERO? \| PAGE 1, 2 - - - - - - - - - - The day after my trip to Anoka, I met with Gov. Ventura at the Capitol and asked him if he knew why he had done so well in the blue-collar suburbs. "I don't know, I don't know," he said. "All we did was go off of past numbers" -- places where Ross Perot had done well and Dean Barkley, a co-founder of the Minnesota Reform Party, had run well in two Senate campaigns -- "and said these are counties we can take and take strongly." Ventura's campaign strategists targeted most of their on-the-ground efforts and advertising there. Ventura's honest answer, and his insistence that as the state's top executive he now has to govern "for all of Minnesota," suggests that he may not understand the full nature of his appeal. Or given his libertarian, entrepreneurial leanings, he may not feel comfortable with the implications of leading a working-class movement. (On the other hand, when he spotted the headline on one of my earlier articles that I had handed him -- "Can an anti-establishment, working-class populist go all the way?" -- he read it aloud and answered in his deep voice, "Oh yeah!") Ventura seems far more at ease casting himself as the guardian of the hopes of a new generation. In his inaugural remarks, he talked a lot about young people. In the name of "these new young people, this generation that came on board, and yes, might well have elected me," he called on the state's politicians to "put down the partisan party politics and look at the bigger picture. We cannot fail, we must not fail, because if we do, we could lose this generation, and we dare not let that happen." His first public appearance the next day was before an overflow crowd of students at the University of Minnesota campus, where he repeated his promise to reduce class size in secondary schools and stressed the importance of students becoming more self-reliant. "If you're smart enough to be [in college], you ought to be smart enough to figure out how to pay for it." Comments like those have some observers here likening Ventura to Reagan, which may yet turn out to be an accurate comparison. I asked him if he worried about suggestions coming from some quarters that he seemed heartless. "Heartless? You mean, people standing on their own two feet is heartless? People not looking at the government as their parent is heartless? I would say to them, pick up the Constitution of the United States and tell me where it says that welfare is a right." Do you think there should be no social safety net? I asked. "Absolutely not, absolutely not," he responded. But some people are nervous about you, I said, because they're not hearing that commitment to a safety net. "Well, I'm just giving them a bigger message. Why do you think I'm lecturing this new generation of young people? ... I can be an influence on them to not be dependent on government. I can't change the world, but I can certainly influence a generation that voted for me in some manner." It would be silly to try to predict where this will all lead. No doubt the halo surrounding Ventura will fade as his administration starts to stake out its policies and the neophyte politician makes some inevitable missteps. The Reform Party will grow and try to run a slate of legislative candidates in 2000, at which point it will be possible to say for sure if Minnesota has a full-blown multiparty system. By then it will also be clearer how Reformers in government reconcile their libertarian, fiscally conservative, working-class and anti-elitist impulses. Outside the temperature is minus 17. But inside, a long-frozen part of the body politic has begun to thaw out. Things can only get more interesting if the warming trends continue. SALON \| Jan. 11, 1999 Micah L. Sifry is a New York writer who is researching the prospects of America's third parties, supported by a grant from the Open Society Institute.