"Tell Jesse to Put Up or Shut Up"

One week after the "hunting man" interview, a Vietnam Army veteran says Minnesotans should tell Jesse Ventura to put up or shut up: "The people who had the most intense combat experience seldom talk about it at all in public. They virtually never flaunt it as the governor does. If he wants to trade on his Navy record, he should release his DD Form 214 and make a statement of the specific places and dates of his overseas service. If the governor is unwilling to make even such a bare-bones disclosure of his experience, he should shut up about it."

Was Jesse a real SEAL?

Ex-Navy SEAL Bill Salisbury investigates Jesse's military service and concludes that he served as a member of an Underwater Demolition Team (UDT) in Vietnam and not as an elite SEAL. Salisbury on the difference between SEALs and UDTs: "SEALs in platoons of 12 to 14 men went looking for the VC and NVA in the swamps, paddies, and jungles of Vietnam; UDTs mainly floated around the South China Sea on ships with Marine battalion landing teams as part of what's called an amphibious ready group or ARG."

Salisbury Takes on Celebrity SEALs

Jesse: Navy SEAL Since 1983

The Governor's office confirms that Ventura was a UDT member and not a Navy SEAL, but argues that because the two entities merged under the SEAL banner in 1983, UDT's can now refer to themselves as SEALs. However, spokesman John Wodele said Ventura "is very forthcoming and accurate in terms of his relationship with the U.S. Navy. He talks about the fact that he was in the Underwater Demolition Team. In fact, he has corrected me in the past." Cursor's examination of print interviews and broadcast transcripts finds that Ventura consistently refers to himself as a Navy SEAL, seldom explaining the distinction between SEAL and UDT

The Bully

Jesse's Worst Enemy

Gary Wills' profile is a must read for anyone wanting insight into what makes the short-fused, governor/entertainer tick...tick...tick. "Jesse's big enemy is not the government or the press or the cashers-in on his fame. It is the demon of paranoid suspicion and conspiratorial distrust that lurks in him. Jesse's real enemy is Jesse."

Body Slammed From the Right

Writing in the National Review, and comparing Jesse to the "Lonesome Rhodes" character in Elia Kazan's film, A Face in the Crowd, Jonah Goldberg exposes the hypocrisy at the heart of the message: "Ventura denounces the media for valuing sensationalism over substance. He assails their tendency to "portray every story as a battle." He inveighs against the "spin doctors," and condemns politicians who put their own interests above those of their constituents. In short, he stands foursquare against every trend in American politics that made his political career possible in the first place and sustains it today."

Jesse's Media Half-Nelson

A darling of the national media, Ventura prefers to play out his battles on a smaller stage, where he can mix it up with local reporters without harming his national reputation. A veteran "jackal" tells Howard Kurtz: "It's very much in the governor's interest to be perceived as being at war with the media."

Ventura Highway

A long-time political reporter examines the record to determine if Jesse's my-way-or-the-highway approach to the media has led to softball coverage.

Jesse-vs-the media, in ten words or fewer.

Jesse Turns the Tables

"The SEAL in me doesn't get mad, he gets even. So I've put together a sort of fantasy media conference - a press conference in reverse, if you will. I've invited all the journalists I know who have a reputation for sleazy reporting. I won't name names; I'll leave it up to you to find out who they are. This time, I get to ask the questions."

The Brand

Jesse's Ka-Ching

Since becoming governor, this "one-man conglomerate of private money-making ventures," has earned an estimated $1.5 to $3 million in outside income from two books, a one-night appearance as a wrestling referee and a series of 12 television broadcasts as an XFL commentator. He has also has sold the rights to his life story for a musical comedy.

Jesse Protects the Brand

Jesse the Moonlighter

Jesse's thirst for the celebrity spotlight has also left him open to criticism from other public officials and constituents. In this CNN report on the controversy surrounding Ventura's efforts to balance work and pay, critics react: "Here is a governor who is using his position as governor to become a celebrity. And not only a celebrity, but to make a significant amount of money on the side."

Jesse's Handlers

From a talent agency located on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles, and a law office in downtown Minneapolis, two men orchestrate the private career of this most public official. "When Ventura won the election in November 1998 and saw his celebrity value skyrocket, he made it clear he would be open for business."

Celebrity Set-Up

A Carleton College Political Science professor on Ventura's dual career path: "We usually understand governor to be a fulltime job. However, Jesse uses it as one of two jobs. I think Jesse really understands that, as governor, he has a unique opportunity to set himself up for life. Serve a term, make significant amounts of money beyond the official salary during that term, and create a celebrity profile that will carry him in to several strong, income-producing years after he is governor."

Shadowing Jesse

Twin Cities' TV stations have been following Jesse around the country and the world since he was elected governor in 1998, covering his every word, regardless of the cost. "What the governor is getting is dream coverage for a politician selling himself as a larger-than-life piece of living theater. What elected official doesn't fantasize about contriving an image so mediagenic it sustains precisely the kind of obsessive attention required to fortify his popularity?"

Jesse the Commentator

Shortly before an XFL game became the lowest-rated show in prime-time history, founder Vince McMahon said the leagues biggest mistake was its selection of announcers. "Our research shows people don't like him [Ventura] on the XFL. He's too over the top. Hyperbole turns people off. They know when you're not telling the truth. We need football announcers, not WWF announcers."

Jesse Rides a Loser

A veteran Jesse-watcher says the XFL fiasco undermines a fundamental aspect of Ventura's positioning effort: "What's amusing to us here, is that the governor's shtick in both politics and show biz is heavily based on the "infallibility factor": the pretense that he never rides a loser and is never wrong."