.*w: 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." Sb.ppI nI TEXTBOOKS... You've gotta have 'em, so why spend more than you have to? 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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. 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