Pat Dollard

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The Swamp:

by James Oliphant

You know, ever since Hillary Clinton dropped out of the presidential race, politics have been, well, a little dull. Each day is a new set of allegations and counter-allegations from John McCain and Barack Obama and it’s is just gonna keep going for months.

Then someone like Jim Webb, a potential VP pick for Obama who would brought a little Braveheartian flourish to the summer given his background in military matters and man-of-action novels has the nerve to pull his name from consideration.

But, thankfully, we’ve been saved.

Jesse Ventura is back, friends. And he is running for Congress. This morning on National Public Radio, Ventura said he is going to take on incumbent Sen. Norm Coleman (R) and former comedian Al Franken (D) in a three-way steel cage death match.

Ventura, the former professional wrestler, you remember was Minnesota’s governor for one term, from 1999-2003, after defeating–naturally–Norm Coleman, who was St. Paul’s mayor at the time. He enjoyed a rancorous four years in the Land of Ten Thousand Lakes, particularly with the local press, whom he liked to call “jackels.”

As a member of the Reform Party, Ventura espoused several libertarian positions. He is now a fierce critic of the Iraq war and said he is entering the race because of Coleman’s support of the war.

“That’s the reason I run,” Ventura told NPR’s David Welna. “I run because it angers me.”

(Note to self: Don’t anger him.)

Ventura has not formally declared but in the interview made it sound like he was very much in:

“When all you MInnesotans take a good long hard look at the three of us, he said, “you decide when you are in a dark alley which one of us you want with you.”

Read more about Ventura on his Wikipedia page here.

Coleman can’t be happy about this. Polls show him with a comfortable lead over Franken, the former comedy writer whose campaign has been plagued by the fact that he is a former comedy writer.

It’s going to be fun. In fact, why don’t we leave this McCain-Obama stuff to the Washington pack and head for Minnesota for the summer for a front-row seat? Just look out for the flying folding chair.