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NATION/WORLD
The Michigan Daily - Thursday. November 5, 1998 - 9A
dt
Ventura
renames
h~nimAsf
45 v~~ .
Gingrich blames
Republican party
losses on media
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) - Jesse
"The Body" Ventura's election as
governor hit Minnesota's political
establishment like the piledriver
move the former professional
wrestler used to inflict on his hapless
opponents in the ring.
In an Election Night Nitro perfor-
mance, the scowling, bald-headed
Ventura, running as the candidate of
the Reform Party, body-slammed the
two major party candidates: Hubert
Humphrey III, the Democratic attor-
ney general for the past 16 years and
son of the late Vice President Hubert
Humphrey, and Republican St. Paul
Mayor Norm Coleman.
"Anyone who tells you they pre-
dicted that this was going to happen
with Jesse Ventura is lying. This is
something totally outside the norm,"
state GOP executive director Tony
Sutton said. He was "absolutely
shocked" by Ventura's victory.
Democratic state Chair Dick
Senese said he was baffled as to what
his party could have done better.
Yesterday morning, the governor-
elect brushed aside questions of how
he would govern without a single
member of his party in the
Legislature or a stock of experienced
party leaders to appoint to the admin-
istration,
With the bluster of a pro wrestler,
he said: "This isn't defying death, this
is simply common sense and logic."
As for his plans over the next few
weeks, Ventura, a volunteer high
school football coach, wisecracked:
"I'm not sure at this point. I couldn't
even tell you what our game plan is
for Blaine (High) on Friday night."
He immediately broke one of his
less-than-serious campaign promises:
He did not rappel into the state
Capitol from a helicopter.
And about that pledge to try to
return about $1,000 in taxes to every-
AP PHOTO
Minnesota Governor-elect and former wrestler Jesse 'The Body' Ventura takes
questions yesterday outside the State Capitol In St. Paul.
House speaker claims
media's coverage of
Clinton scandal hurt GOPs
The Washington Post
WASHINGTON -When Newt
Gingrich tangled with Katie Couric
yesterday morning, he had a handy
explanation as to why the voters had
dashed his party's hopes.
He blamed the media for perpetually
flogging the Monica Lewinsky scandal.
"I don't think we are nearly as
obsessed as the press corps. ... Look
at all the hours that Tim Russert spent
on "Meet the Press" this year on that
topic versus the number of hours on
Social Security. ... I don't think hour
after hour of details about Lewinsky
are very newsworthy. ... It is a little
disingenuous to spend all this media
time on a topic and then turn and say
why are these other folks obsessed
with it," the House speaker said on
"Today."
Gingrich was among a small battal-
ion of lawmakers, party hacks, pundits
and other operatives storming the air-
waves with their spin. The Georgia
Republican began honing his message
on election night. "The news media is
infinitely more fascinated by impeach-
ment than the House Republicans," he
told ABC. "The environment the media
created said there was only one issue
that mattered," he told CNN.
On one level, the Georgia
Republican wasn't far off in describing
the media's Monica madness. From the
nightly cable gabfests to the front pages
of major newspapers, there's been no
more dominant topic than the president
and the intern.
But the former history professor also
seemed to be writing himself out of this
particular chapter. Gingrich declared
last April that he would "never again, as
long as I am speaker, make a speech
without commenting on this topic" of
the White House sex scandal. His
House Republicans just voted to launch
open-ended impeachment hearings. He
approved a final-week blitz of scandal
ads that aired in 30 key districts. (The
ads, Gingrich told Couric, "were in a
context created in large part by the
news media.")
"It's such a mind-boggling com-
ment, it's hard to know where to
begin," said Bill Kristol, editor of the
conservative Weekly Standard. "The
House of Representatives formally
votes to have impeachment hearings
on the president of the United States,
and Gingrich thinks that shouldn't be
covered by the media? He thinks we
should cover - what? - his unambi-
tious and uninteresting legislative
agenda? He's flailing."
University of Virginia political scien-
tist Larry Sabato called Gingrich's
remarks "absolutely absurd. The press
is everybody's favorite whipping boy.
When it's convenient, it's always the
press's fault. Every single one of (the
Republicans) was calling around fan-
ning the flames on the Lewinsky mat-
ter... Their minds are fried. They can't
believe they have ended up losing
seats."
Neither, at first, could the press
pack. When reporters and commenta-
tors kept saying the Democrats were
exceeding expectations, they neatly
ignored the fact that their own chatter-
ing class had been chattering about a
Republican pickup of five to 15
House seats and three or four in the
Senate. Instead, the Democrats gained
five in the House and fought to a draw
in the Senate.
"We all missed it," Sabato conced-
ed. Not one of the professional prog-
nosticators in The Washington Post's
Outlook section predicted that the
Democrats would pick up House
seats.
"It's the weirdest damn election I've
ever had," said Charlie Cook, publish-
er of an independent newsletter on
House races, who predicted single-
digit gains for the GOP. "If the results
are better than the winning party ever
thought, I think we all came pretty
close."
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one in Minnesota? It didn't sound like
the check would be in the mail at his
first Capitol news conference as gov-
ernor-elect. A sleep-deprived Ventura
muttered, "Oh, sheesh" when asked
about it.
As the 6-foot-4, 250-pound
Ventura grappled with the details of
leadership, some people sounded
unsure whether the state was in the
grips of a half-Nelson, full Nelson, or
Ozzie and Harriet Nelson.
President Clinton offered his
thoughts on Ventura's election with a
chuckle: "I don't know - I think
that you're going to have a lot of
politicians spending time in gyms
now."
Though Ventura's election might
trouble some people in the state of
Hubert Humphrey and Walter
Mondale, he wouldn't be its first gov-
ernor to raise eyebrows nationally.
Gov. Rudy Perpich, a dentist by train-
ing, was dubbed "Governor Goofy"
by Newsweek in 1990. Among other
things, Perpich used to make citizen's
arrests of speeding motorists.
The 47-year-old Ventura - an
actor, tack radio host and former sub-
urban mayor and Navy SEAL -is,
like retiring GOP Gov. Arne Carlson,
a fiscal conservative and social mod-
crate. Both support abortion rights
and homosexual rights. Ventura also
supports legal recognition of gay
relationships. And he suggested the
state look into legalizing prostitu-
tion.
The Republicans took control of
the Minnesota House in Tuesday's
election, and the Democrats held onto
the Senate.
"If this was Europe, maybe we'd
say he's going to run a coalition gov-
ernment," said Steven Smith, a
University of Minnesota political sci-
ence professor.
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