Archive [March 1999]

This is a guy who fires me up. The newly-elected Governor of Minnesota, of the Reform Party, is saying so many of the things I would say — things I wish other elected officials would say. This straight-talking former Navy SEAL, professional wrestler, actor, has changed the face of politics, and I am going to enjoy every minute Jesse “the Mind” Ventura is a combatant in the arena of ideas.

 

Rush: Hello, Governor. I know you have to be swamped, and I appreciate your carving a little time out for us here.

Ventura: That’s not a problem. I’ve gotten word that you’ve been very supportive of me on two or three radio shows, and I appreciate it very much.

Rush: I don’t think it’s as few as two or three. You have charged me up, I have to tell you. Since Newt Gingrich resigned, I’ve had a couple of conversations with him, and I’ve told a number of Republicans — who are just in a funk — I said, “Look, the place you need to be looking is Minnesota.” I said, “Look at what Ventura did. In ‘98 we had a national turnout of 37 percent. Ventura gets 61 percent. He got young people out. He did it with a smaller, less intrusive government message and a tax cut message.” I said it can be done if you have somebody doing it with believability.

You have done that. You did convince people that you meant it, and now the challenge is to follow through on it — even though you’re a lone wolf in that you don’t have anybody in the Reform Parry to help you in the legislature.

Ventura: Well, that can be a positive, too. Because you just put on your referee shirt and stand between them and let them throw the blows, and you kind of guide them a little bit.

Rush: Let me tell you what happens each time you do something that makes me want to praise you. When you spoke with the megaphone to the single mothers and you told them, “It’s not the government’s job to fix your mistakes,” I stood up and cheered. When I learned that they later sought you out to apologize, I stood up and cheered again. So I say this on the radio program and I get deluged with e-mail from people in Minnesota who profess to be conservatives, who say, “Rush, don’t go crazy over this guy, he’s saying one thing but we’re not so sure he’s going to follow through.” Are you encountering some people who are distrustful of what you say?

Ventura: Very much so. I hate to tell you this, Rush, but the problems I get are coming from Republicans.

Rush: I’m not really surprised.

Ventura: I don’t know if it’s sour grapes over the election — you know, that they lost the big enchilada, which of course is the governorship. That’s the big prize in any state race.

But in the case of the students, I actually didn’t go out there with the megaphone. They provided it for me. They were protesting and I simply went out to speak to them. They passed it up to me so they could hear me. It was a massive crowd and there wasn’t anything set up to address the crowd. So they passed me a megaphone.

The amazing thing, Rush, is that 70 percent of my new spending has been in education, and I pointed that out to them. I said, “All of my new spending goes to education. Come on, what more do you want from me? Any new spending I’m doing is in the form of getting you people more intelligent, so you can get better jobs and be less dependent upon government.”

Rush: What did they specifically apologize for, and did that surprise you when they sought you out to apologize?

Ventura: The hard-core ones didn’t come up to apologize. It was the remainder of the group. There was a crowd out there and I don’t think the opinions of the whole group were necessarily those of the loud, boisterous ones who will get the attention. There were other portions of the group that, when I walked off, came up to my office and said, “We want to apologize to the governor. We understand his support for higher education, and those particular individuals did not necessarily speak for the whole group.”

Rush: That had to make you feel like you’d accomplished something with them.

Ventura: My whole thing, Rush, from my entire candidacy, was that I will tell you the truth. It may not be what you want to hear, but it will be the truth as I see it.

Rush: These people who e-mail me — and they are Republicans — say things like, “Look, you’re getting on the bandwagon too soon here, Rush. He promised us a rebate on our taxes with the surplus, but the liberals have gotten control of the budget and the rebate’s going to be targeted. He’s not giving it to people who actually deserve it.” Basically what they say is that your campaign promises are already being fudged, and they’re warning me not to be fooled by your rhetoric. And you say you are confronting some of that yourself and it’s mostly from Republicans.

Ventura: Yes. Let me explain it, Rush. The rebate is going back. I’ve just chosen a method that apparently the Republican leadership doesn’t like. I’ve chosen a sales tax rebate as opposed to an income tax rebate. There are a couple of reasons. First of all, in 1991, when we had a deficit here in Minnesota, the deficit was made up for by raising the sales tax. So it stands to reason to me that now that we have a surplus, that surplus should be given back in the same form that the deficit was made up for, which is a sales tax rebate. My second reason is, if we give it back in an income tax rebate, as the Republican leadership in the House wants, $200 million is then going to automatically go to the federal government, just because that will be taxable income.

Rush: Really?

Ventura: Yes, and if we give it back in a sales tax rebate, the federal government will have to change their rules drastically to take that money. Because the way the rules read is: if you can’t deduct it, you can’t tax it. And you are not allowed to deduct sales tax.

Rush: Pretty smart. I would think they would appreciate that kind of strategy.

Ventura: I think the problem is this, Rush. Immediately after the election, they came out with what they wanted to do with it. They didn’t have the benefit that I had. I had the Department of Finance, I had the Department of Revenue, who all work for me. We all sat down in a room and we spent eight weeks studying. I think the problem is their ego. They came out prematurely with this income-tax rebate. My rebate is actually better and more sound, but their egos won’t let them budge on it. Because then they’re going to look like they’re giving in to the Reform Party governor.

Rush: Speaking of the Republicans and ego, and I’m not so much referring to the elected Republicans you have to deal with, but just the Republican population at large nationwide — they are so angry and let down; they think that their leaders in Washington have botched everything. They’re sick and tired of losing. They’re sick and tired of being led by people who don’t know how to win. And I think that too many of them — and I face them as callers, too — are now just perpetually defeatist, unwilling to accept the possibility that somebody with actual good ideas is going to carry them out. They’re just so darn suspicious of every politician that they cannot accept the fact that somebody might actually represent a positive change.

Ventura: Maybe so. Like I said, my view was, “Hey, this is a better idea.” Why do we want to give our Minnesota surplus to the Feds? Why do we want to let them tap into it? This is our surplus. It’s our money. Why should we give $200 million of it to them?

Rush: Well, you shouldn’t.

Ventura: Unless the Feds change the rules — and that’s like playing a football game and then at hall-time deciding that the rules are going to change.

Rush: Well, they’re capable of it.

Ventura: Oh, they’re capable of it. Certainly, they are. I’m wide-eyed and know that very well. But at least if that happens it won’t be my fault. It’ll be their fault. And to me the sales tax is the smarter way to go. You’ll get all the money.

Rush: Is the total surplus being rebated?

Ventura: The total over-collection of taxes is being rebated. Here’s the other sticking point. The Republicans are lumping in our tobacco settlement money into this. I don’t make a judgment on whether we should or shouldn’t have done the tobacco settlement. That’s water under the bridge. The settlement has taken place and we have this chunk of one-time money that is coming to us via the Minnesota tobacco settlement. They want that put into a rebate back to the taxpayers. I don’t want to do that. Because I was just out in Washington two weeks ago at the National Governor’s Conference and heard President Clinton very clearly state that if these settlement monies go back in any type of rebate, the Feds are going to come after it for that Medicare stuff.

Rush: Exactly.

Ventura: So what I’ve proposed to do is this, Rush. I’ve proposed to take this one-time rebate money and put it into four different endowments, almost like escrow, to where the principal will never be touched. The principal will always be there, and it will allow us to then use the profits for some government spending, to where we can supplement programs that we already have with tobacco money, both in education as well as in medical research. This money will never be touched — the principal. So that when all this wears off in four to five years and people deem, “Hey, let’s give it back,” then it’ll still be there to give it back and then hopefully the Feds won’t be knocking on the door.

 

 

Rush: Under the terms of that tobacco settlement, what was that money supposed to be used for?

Ventura: It‣s supposed to be used to stop people from smoking. It’s supposed to be used for medical research. It’s supposed to be used tor things that promote good health. The President made it crystal clear that if it’s given back simply in rebate or to help people pay less taxes, then they will indeed come after it. And I read my four proposals to the President in the room and he seemed very positive towards them, that if that was done, the Feds would keep their hands off it.

Rush: Do you believe him?

Ventura: [Laughs]. Oh, on policy I’d like to believe him. Personally, I wouldn’t. But on a policy decision, I go by a simple rule, Rush. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me. And if he looks me in the eye and says it the first time, I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt. If he does it again to me then he won’t have it ever again, if he reneges on it. But look at it from this aspect also. If we give all the money back in a tax rebate, then if the Feds do come after it, how are we going to pay them back if they win?

Rush: You’d have to raise taxes all over again.

Ventura: You’d have to scramble around. You’d have to find this money. So let’s put it into escrow. Let’s put it into these four endowments I want. That way if the Feds come after it and we’re forced to pay them back, it’ll destroy these endowments but at least we won’t be back raising taxes or looking around asking, What the hell are we going to do now?

Rush: Right. And then you will honestly be able to say that it was the Feds who depleted the endowments, not you.

Ventura: Exactly. Yet the Republicans are fighting me tooth and nail on this, too.

Rush: Are Democrats fighting you at all?

Ventura: No.

Rush: You find that curious? I really find that curious. I think of your message, which was plain as day. You are such a stark contrast, it seems, with the rest of the country which is living in a touchy-feely, I-feel-your-pain kind of mode. And here you come, as plain-spoken and direct as anybody has been since Perot, and people just glommed onto you. You got people who hadn’t voted before lined up in early morning hours to be able to vote. Your message is clearly much closer to a conservative Republican message than it is a liberal Democrat. I’m really a little curious as to why you’re not having any problems from Democrats.

 

 

Ventura: I’ll tell you why. This is just my theory. They got hammered in the elections. Hubert Humphrey became Hubert Humphrey III — he came in third! They also lost the House to the Republicans for the first time in many, many years.

The Democrats are smart. They saw what happened. They’ve seen my popularity. The latest polls have me at 72 percent popular, the highest in Minnesota history, with a disapproval rating of only nine, which I like even better. I’m in single digits on people who disapprove. The Democrats have been smart enough to say, “Wait a minute. We’ve got to make a move. We’ve got to take a more centrist attitude. Let’s get on board with this guy.” And they have. They’ve moved, and they haven’t given me near the trouble. Let me tell you what two other Republicans did to me. You’ll love this.

Rush: I hope not. What did they do?

Ventura: My capitol security force told me, “Governor, we would like you to apply and get a conceal-and-carry license.”

Rush: I remember that.

Ventura: I’m an ex-Navy SEAL. I’m well qualified. I went out to the State Troopers. I shot. I fired. I showed that I’m very competent with a firearm, that it’s nothing new to me, and so I qualified for it. A Republican senator from Stillwater now has tried to introduce legislation to pull this from me. Rush, I have never carried a weapon onto the capitol grounds. All it does is give me the piece of paper so that if, say, I were to come up late on a Saturday night to get some papers and if I was by myself or whatever, I would have the ability to arm and protect myself. I’ve never done it. I’ve never carried a weapon on capitol grounds. But he writes a letter and releases it to the press accusing me of putting children in danger, insinuating that I’m brandishing a weapon around the capitol when children come.

Rush: Now, that’s just so hard to believe. That’s usually what a liberal Democrat says about somebody packing heat.

Ventura: Exactly.

Rush: That is just puzzling as it can be.

Ventura: Then let me give you the other one. I went to the National Governor’s Convention in Washington. I was there all weekend working. I got sworn in on January 4th. I have not left the state of Minnesota until this. I’ve been doing my job, 10, 11 hours a day, Monday through Saturday many times, because I want to prove that I’m up to doing this job. And so the National Governor’s Convention comes along. I go out there. I attend all the meetings. I had two separate meetings with the President, went to all the stuff that goes along with it. Then on Tuesday afternoon I flew up to do the Letterman show. I thought, “That’s prudent, because now I can get Letterman to pay from Washington to New York and New York home. I don’t have to put that on the taxpayer’s bill. So why not do the show?” So I do that. I get back here and a Republican state senator, Dean Johnson from Willmer, releases to the press: “Jesse, please stay home.” He accuses me of running around the countryside to promote myself, rather than being here while the legislature’s in session and looking after it as a governor. It’s their session; it’s not mine. I submitted my new, bi-annual budget three weeks ahead of time. I got it to them at the end of January when it wasn’t required until mid-February. I went through all that, and then this guy submitted this letter to the press. Turns out he had just returned from three days of golfing in Alabama with friends and lobbyists.

Rush: I can only think that they’re really worried that you have stolen their agenda, and maybe they have a fear that you’re a wolf in sheep’s clothing. This goes along with some of the e-mail I’m getting. As I said, I don’t get it from elected Republicans. I just get it from citizens there. But it really has puzzled me and your stories here are an even bigger curiosity to me. I really have to tell you I’m perplexed. I don’t understand it, because I didn’t think the Republicans would look at your victory as something to resent. I’ve been telling everybody — as Democrats in your state apparently have figured out — here’s a new road map. What you’ve done has obviously involved many more people in the political process, gotten the vote turnout up. You speak in a no-nonsense way.

Now let me ask you. You brought the budget up, and I have a question about that. After your State of the State speech, you printed your budget principles on wallet-sized cards.

Ventura: That’s correct.

Rush: And you distributed those after the speech. What are your budget principles?

Ventura: I have one of my cards right in front of me here and can read them verbatim. First of all, some of my quotes. Under Accountable Responses and Limited Government: “Love is bigger than government.” Under Personal Responsibility and Opportunities for Self-Sufficiency: “You can’t legislate against stupidity.” And, “No person in Minnesota is ever done learning.” In Bringing Government Back to the People, my quote is: “Every single vote in Minnesota counts.” I also operate under the premise that “There are no dumb questions.” I believe that, and my belief stems from my days as a SEAL. I had a Chief Warrant Officer who taught me demolition. Warrant Officer Casey pounded into my head that there is no dumb question — because when you are working with demolition, you better know.

Then on the flip side of the card are my budget principles. My budget principles are: Be fiscally conservative and prudent. Never forget, it’s the people’s money. Underneath that are: Do what’s necessary, not necessarily what’s nice to do. Prevent future costs where possible. Pay close attention to future costs on policy and budget decisions, and insist that projected budgets are balanced for four years. Set a responsible budget, live within it and settle up any actual surpluses with taxpayers at the end of the bi-annum. My next principle is, Do the right things and do them well. Evaluate programs in tangible ways for real cost-effective results. Reform or eliminate programs if they are redundant or aren’t producing desired results.

Rush: Have you targeted any of those?

Ventura: You’re elected November 3rd. When you come into transition like I did, it’s like a big wave at the beach picking you up and body surfing because you’re caught up in it. You’re given until February to come up with the bi-annual budget. So you just concentrate totally on that budget. I haven’t had the time to get the scalpel out — but now I have two years.

When this budget’s approved, I’ll have two years before the next one, and that will be the one that I’ll be able to go in and truly study what needs to be done. You know, you’re thrown right into the fire because you’ve got to have this budget out by February, and you’re given only 90 days to decide what you’re going to do with $23 billion — 90 days — as well as name commissions and put a staff together. Pretty tough. So what I did was simply hold the line. My spending rose less than inflation. I kept it underneath inflation.

Rush: Well, good grief, inflation is nothing.

Ventura: Average income for families is supposed to rise 4.5 percent. I think my spending was at 2.9. So I kept the budget underneath what the average family is going to gain.

Rush: Are there any promises you made, budgetary or otherwise, that you made that you’re worried you may not be able to keep?

Ventura: No, Rush. During the campaign that’s what I was criticized for. I didn’t make any promises. They kept asking, “Aren’t you to promise anything?” And I said, “No — because if I promise something I want to be able to be sure I can keep my promises.”

Rush: So you campaigned purely on philosophy?

Ventura: Pretty much. I told them I would do the best job I’m capable of doing. That I’d be honest. I did tell them I would give all surplus money back and I am. Because again, tobacco money is not surplus from taxation. It’s a windfall profit from a court case, and that I’m holding separate. I’ve divided that out. But all other surplus money I’m giving back.

Rush: Now, some people describe you as a novelty.

Ventura: Hillary Clinton did. You’ll love my quote on her. She came to town the weekend before the election, stumping for Skip Humphrey, and she said that it was time to end the carnival side-show act, which I guess was directly aimed at me.

 

 

Rush: She’s one to talk.

Ventura: And the press immediately caught me. We were on a 72-hour RV trip around the state, we made 34 stops and covered 1,500 miles in three days, and the press hit me in the morning with that quote. And I decided to have some-fun because, what the heck, why not?

Rush: You’re a colorful guy.

Ventura: And so I said off the top of my head, “It seems to me that Hillary should be more concerned about leaving Bill home alone. Because every time she leaves, Bill gets into mischief.” And of course everyone went hog wild over it, that I had the guts to say that to the First Lady when I’m trying to get elected. But I thought, Hey.

Rush: But see, that’s the kind of thing that I find endearing. That’s the kind of thing that is refreshing, the plain-spokenness. I find it all too upsetting that that is what’s gotten you this moniker of being “novel.” What’s novel about you is that you speak language that everybody else speaks. You don’t hem-haw around. You don’t speak political speak at all — and it’s unfortunate that’s a novelty. There ought to be more people like you, and the way you deal with the Washington press corps. I’ve got to tell you I love it. I absolutely love it. I saw they hit you with that “packing heat” business when you were on “Meet the Press.” You haven’t been bested by any of these people yet, and I think there’s a tremendous amount of curiosity and admiration for you in quarters that would never admit it. But it’s there.

Ventura: Let me tell you just one other quick story, Rush, if I may. During the first debate, there were about seven Democrat candidates. The Republicans took theirs, Norm Coleman, out of the debates because they felt that with so many Democrats he’d be ganged up on. So they held him out until after the primary. Yet I went. I thought, “Hey, every debate I can get into I need to be into.” So I’m sitting at the first debate, which is being simulcast to Duluth, Rochester and the Twin Cities. All of them have their stacks of books and their papers, and I’m sitting down on the end with nothing. About a quarter of the way through the debate, this citizen sitting to my left, an African American lady, slides a legal pad and a pen over to me and whispers, “Mr. Ventura, don’t you think you’ll need this?” I slid it back and said, “No thank you, ma’am.” She asked, “Why not?” And I said, “Because if you tell the truth, you don’t have to have a good memory.” Also in some of the debates, Rush, I made the biggest mistake you can make as a debater apparently.

 

 

Rush: What’s that?

Ventura: They asked me a question, and I said I didn’t know.

Rush: You are enjoying all of this, are you not?

Ventura: Yes, I love it.

Rush: Is there any aspect of it so far that has made you regret winning?

Ventura: Yes, the press.

Rush: Really? You seem to have more fun with them than anybody else.

Ventura: Well, you do but you don’t, Rush. I support the First Amendment completely. I realize that we have to have it, that we can’t tinker with it, because of just what it is, we have to have freedom to speak. But the scary thing, and the thing I don’t like is that I find the press carries a political agenda.

 

 

Rush: They do.

Ventura: And they use that agenda to try to control government.

Rush: Yes, they do, and destroy people in power.

Ventura: Rather than them simply reporting, they choose to write things in a certain manner. And it’s okay on the editorial pages. We understand. That’s what the editorial pages are for. But it’s being carried over into the regular news reporting by the local papers, and that disturbs me greatly. Also the thing I don’t like is the loss of privacy; you become a prisoner.

Rush: But you knew that.

Ventura: You know it, Rush, but you don’t know the extent. Yes, I was a pro-wrestler. I did movies. But I could still drive to Kmart by myself and I could still do things on my own. You really become a prisoner when you take this to this level. I thought the national press would wear off after two weeks. I thought, “They’ll look at me, I’ll be a novelty, they’ll make a big hurrah over it and then they’ll disappear and I’ll be able to get on and do my job.” It hasn’t. It’s gotten worse. And because of that, you really lose your privacy a lot and your children’s, and I really want to protect them.

Rush: Is it the national press or the state press that is hounding you the worst?

Ventura: The worst is the state. I get more respect from the national press than I do from the Minnesota’s own local press. I think the reason being, Rush, is because I fooled them. Nobody predicted I would win. None of the pundits, none of the experts, nobody said, “This guy’s going to win.” And when I won, they had egg on their face because they’re supposed to be the experts. The national press didn’t really get involved in it beforehand and they actually treat me with more respect than the local press does.

Rush: I think anybody dealing with the press — and this is a mistake William Ginsburg made — has got to just assume they don’t want to be your friend.

Ventura: Oh, absolutely.

Rush: They’re always going to be adversarial and if you try to make them your friend, they’ll eat you up. Plus, it’s a part of our culture, not just exclusive to the press, to build people up, and once we get them high up on the pedestal, we immediately start to tear them apart and try to bring them down.

Ventura: Oh, yeah. Did you hear about my Letterman big hurrah?

Rush: Repeat it for my readers here, for those who’ve not heard it.

Ventura: Well, I got on Letterman and we’re talking. Now, I view Letterman as a comedy show. His top-ten list is not exactly the Ten Commandments.

Rush: Thankfully so.

Ventura: You have fun there. That’s how I view it. You do some tongue-in-cheek. I’m a performer, and I have fun. David asked me, “Which city do you like better, Minneapolis or Saint Paul?” I said, “I’m born in Minneapolis, so naturally I like Minneapolis better. Besides, Saint Paul is confusing to me. I said in Minneapolis, if you’re on 32nd Street, you know that 36th Street is only four blocks away. I said in Saint Paul, nothing is numerical, nothing is alphabetical. The house numbers make no sense at all, and I said it drives you crazy. Now Saint Paul has a big Irish population. I said, “Whoever built Saint Paul must have been drunk when they did it — you know how those Irishman are.” I kind of laughed and made the motion like having a couple.

You should have seen it. When I got off the airplane back in Minneapolis there must have been 20 reporters waiting. They almost trampled my wife. The mayor of Saint Paul, who was my adversary, threw fuel on the tire. He went ballistic over it, and said he was ashamed of his governor.

I thought, my goodness, and I apologized the next day. I said, “Look, if I offended anyone, it wasn’t meant to be offensive. It was a comedy show. I was trying to be funny.” I said if they took it wrong, I apologize to anyone who might. But I said when I grew up here, you could laugh and have fun. I think it’s very sad that we have gotten to the point now where apparently you’re not allowed to do that anymore.

Rush: You see, I think your humor is a large factor in your ability to bring young people to the political process.

Ventura: I do, too, Rush.

Rush: Everybody laments the fact that fewer and fewer people are voting, and they worry that voting people seem to be more and more distant from the political process. Yet you brought them in droves. What do you think did it?

Ventura: I think part of what did it was honesty to the kids, that I didn’t talk to them in the typical political talk. My two opponents were like two political career machines. They said all the things they were supposed to say. They talked the way they always do. We brought in young people and first-time voters and we asked them, What will it take to keep you involved? And they said, We want to hear from your directly, Jesse. We want to hear you.

Rush: What are their concerns, Governor? I mean those 30 and under, the demographic that you really brought out.

Ventura: I think their concerns are honesty. They don’t necessarily want to be told something. They want the truth. If the truth is bad news, they’ll deal with it. But they don’t want to be told rhetoric. As one of them said, every four years they all come out and say the same thing to us, and then as soon as they get elected, we never hear from them again, until four years later when they come back and say it all over again, and it’s the same BS four years later.

Rush: Now Al Gore is getting his candidacy ready to go and recently he convenes a massive traffic seminar in Washington, D.C. He brings 20 or 25 television traffic reporters into Washington to deal with the traffic problems facing people. Now, it seems to me that this is not a federal responsibility at all. It seems to me that the government getting involved in traffic ought to be local and state governments.

Ventura: I agree — other than the interstate highways, which they’ve already built. Let me expound on another thing that bothers me greatly federally. Right now you’re hearing how they’re going to provide all this money for us for education. We’re going to be able to hire teachers. We’re going to do this, we’re going to do that. We were in that room with the 50 governors and the President and Vice President. Are you familiar with Angus King, the governor of Maine?

Rush: Yes.

Ventura: Well, we set a record. We had the first Independent Governor’s Caucus in the park. Angus and I took a walk through the park, and that was our caucus! But Angus had the guts, when the President was talking about all this — that we’re going to provide millions of dollars, hire teachers, build schools — Governor King raised his hand and got recognized. He said, “Mr. President, I can build my own schools in Maine. I can hire my own teachers in Maine. I can take care of everything educationally in Maine if you will do one thing for us federally.” The President said, “What is that?” And Angus said, “Simply pay for your federal mandate on special ed.” He said, “If you will pay for your mandate on special ed, we will have the money in the states to do everything we need to do in education. Right now that is dividing up Main Street America, because they’re fighting at the local school levels — ‘How do we pay for special ed?’ It’s taking all the money and you’re getting all the battles.” I looked across at Angus and shook my fist at him and said, “God Bless you, Angus.”

 

 

Rush: That’s a central, fundamental debate going on between liberals and conservatives these days. Conservatives do want to give more power back to people like you, to control more parts of the federal budget. You’re going to be better at it.

One more thing I’ve got to ask you. You’ve coined a new word: “tri-partisanship.” What is it? And is it working?

Ventura: Yes, I think it is. I view it as this, Rush. People in Minnesota were looking for someone more in the middle, more centrist, who could look at the best things from the right, look at the best things from the left, and embrace what’s good, if there is, on both sides. Tri-partisan means we get three choices instead of two.

Rush: Good for you. I hope that you do have the ability to implement all that you want to, and we’re going to be watching and we’re going to be keeping score. But we wish you the best in all that you choose to do.

Ventura: I’d like to say, Rush, thank you for your support, and I hope that now I cleared the air with you. Some people are trying to insinuate what I’m doing here that I’m not doing. We talked openly and candidly about it, and I stand for what I believe in. I think you’ll respect that from me.

Rush: Yes. These people are concerned that you’re saying one thing but that you intend to do another. I’ve told people, “Look, I watch what people do, but I’m going to be patient as I watch what he does.”

Ventura: Thank you. I want to say. Rush, it’s been an enjoyment to talk to you today. We’ll talk again.

Rush: I hope so!