Says Lew:
The Minessota Senate race this year was a Weekly Standard dream: Republican neocon incumbent Norm Coleman vs. Democratic neocon challenger Al Franken. The war party couldn’t lose. But now ex-governor and ex-wrester Jesse Ventura may run as an independent. We’ll find out Monday night on the Larry King Show. Coleman is the colorless warmonger who was sliced and diced by George Galloway over Iraq, in one of the great moments in politics. Comedian Franken, however, is in trouble because of the jokes he’s told, since this is the US of PC. I remember him as the warmonger who kept anti-war thought to a minimum on Air America. In a three-way cage match, these two chickenhawks would be wiped out by Jesse. Here are some excerpts from his interview in Newsweek.
UPDATE: Richard Winger points out that if Ventura were to run, it would almost definitely be as the candidate of the Independence Party, not as an “independent” (i.e. without partisan affiliation).
If Jesse Ventura runs, it will be in the Independence Party primary. He would surely win that September primary, and so he would be the Independence Party nominee.
These news sites that say he might run as an independent aren’t paying attention. If he were to run as an independent, he would have needed 2,000 signatures, due in a few days. But running in the Indepencence Party primary just requires a filing fee, so a last-minute decision is easy.