Governor Ventura's military record is one of these perplexities. Little by little, inch by inch, this thing is growing into an issue. To review: the Governor was a famous-indeed infamous-Navy SEAL. Someone wrote a piece suggesting he really wasn't a SEAL or something like that and we all sort of accepted that there could be arguments about these matters and let it go.

Then, the Governor made his "hunting man" quote, suggesting strongly that he had been stalking Viet Cong while in Viet Nam. Except that he continues to insist on keeping his military service private. Which is fine, except that if he wanted it to be private he wouldn't say things like "hunting man." What we hear as we go around the state is more and more doubt about the Governor's military record. What did he actually do? He has, of course, adamantly refused to open his military records for public scrutiny.

Minnesotans, for the most part, probably wouldn't care one wit about Ventura's service record, but the fact that he is so unyielding about hiding it from the public's view and that he keeps indirectly alluding to it has heightened public interest in the whole subject and raised among many a sense that the Governor is trying to hide something.

Ventura's been able to rewrite a lot of the rules covering typical and traditional political behavior as both a candidate and an officeholder. Yet, his outright refusal to follow the unwritten rule that says you "never give your political opponents an issue you can control," may make this matter of secrecy over his military service record a much bigger issue by November, 2002 than any of us might have guessed a year ago.