Jesse Ventura

A reporter takes on the Fair with pen and camera – and even survives an encounter with a statue of Jesse Ventura

You’ll never be able to find anyone to argue with this fact: We Minnesotans love our State Fair.

And politicians love it more than anyone.

Think about it: You’re running for office. You want to shake as many Minnesota hands and pose for as many photos with Pronto Pup-munching Minnesotans as possible. The logical conclusion: Spend so much time at the fair that your hands become numb and your voice disappears.

This being an election year, you can believe that politicians were thick on the ground Saturday at the Great Minnesota Get-Together. U.S. Senate candidate Al Franken, the DFL-endorsed challenger to Republican U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman, held court in front of potential constituents for several hours.

“Look at that,” observed a fairgoer, whose Southern accent betrayed her as a non-native (and thus ineligible to vote for Franken anyway). “They’ve got him standing on a box, and he’s still shorter than everyone else.”

In the big DFL booth near the Snelling Avenue entrance to the fairgrounds, enterprising DFL volunteers had supplied a stack of Post-It notes and asked fairgoers to tack up “top reasons to dump Norm Coleman.” Among them: “He’s an empty suit.” “He’s Bush’s friend.” “Because he may think he can rejoin the DFL.” And: “He has a Jersey accent (in Minnesota)!”

Partway up Machinery Hill, Priscilla Lord Faris, the DFLer challenging Franken in the Sept. 9 primary, did some one-on-one campaigning.

“I’ve known her for years,” confided a volunteer in Lord Faris’ booth, watching the candidate chat with a fairgoer and his son. “She’s really a great gal.”

Just a cheese curd’s throw away from Lord Faris’ encampment was a booth with a big sign: “Nader-Gonzalez 2008.”

“Who is Na-dair?” wondered a fairgoer. Told that it was, in fact, perennial presidential candidate Ralph Nader, she looked stunned, then embarrassed at her mispronunciation. “He’s running again!” she said.

And still farther up Machinery Hill, supporters of Dean Barkley, who spent two months as a U.S. senator from Minnesota in 2002 after U.S. Sen. Paul Wellstone’s death in a plane crash, staffed a booth that was a tribute to pure symbiosis.

Barkley, a member of the Independence Party of Minnesota (formerly the Minnesota Reform Party), made several unsuccessful stabs at national office before gaining political credibility as the man whose guidance turned Jesse “The Body” Ventura into Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura in 1998. Ventura appointed him to fill the remainder of Wellstone’s term in 2002; this year, the former governor is managing Barkley’s campaign for the U.S. Senate as an Independence Party candidate.

And Barkley’s State Fair booth this year is dominated not, as one might expect, by Barkley photos, but by a large fiberglass statue of Ventura. It was a popular attraction Saturday afternoon; fairgoers meandered by and posed for photos beside the statue. (Small dents above the statue’s left eyebrow and on the tip of the nose indicated that someone might have tried a little unsuccessful facial reconstruction.)

A media jackal even made an attempt at fence mending and posed for a photo kissing Ventura’s fiberglass cheek.

Can’t we all just get along?

More photos: Left: Volunteers at the Minnesota GOP booth. Right: a bulletin board set up in the DFL building. Fairgoers could write “reasons to dump Norm Coleman” on Post-It notes and tack them up.

Today, the Senate is expected not to confirm Carol Molnau as Commissioner of Transportation.

Nine days after the I-35W Bridge collapsed, I concluded that Molnau should resign.

I stand by every word I wrote then:

"Molnau should step down from the MnDOT job. With everyone's best wishes, a collective fond remembrance of seriously and hilariously rattling former Independent Gov. Jesse Ventura by tapping his shoulder on the TPT's Almanac famous public policy couch, a clear understanding that the bridge collapse was not her fault, and the same clear understanding that life's not fair--and sometimes political life is exponentially unfair."

We are now seven months post bridge collapse, and the facts -- as we know them at this point in time -- are that a bridge designed in the 1960s couldn't withstand the traffic we drove there 40-plus years later. A design problem no one could anticipate. A gusset plate. Not a Commissioner.

Nevertheless, politics is politics. All that DFL animosity toward "no new taxes" and GOP Gov. Tim Pawlenty was channeled into transportation funding policy. Set aside the fact that transportation funding increases stalled out in the 1990s because DFL transit advocates wanted what the DFL road advocates have: A permanent source of funding. [Roads get constitutionally dedicated funding; metro transit funding now gets a Twin Cities metro sales tax increase in the legislation that became law despite Pawlenty's veto pen.]

Animosity being animosity, a vague target like "no new taxes" also had to manifest itself in something breathing and walking.

Enter Molnau.

The breathing and walking scapegoat. The DFL's deus ex machina, the "resolution to a story that does not pay due regard to the story's internal logic and is so unlikely that it challenges suspension of disbelief, allowing the author to conclude the story with an unlikely, though more palatable, ending."

To Democrats in the Senate. Remember that, today. Carol Molnau is the "improbable, though more palatable, ending" to a bridge falling down in Minneapolis. Wasn't her fault, you know that. So, be kind. Send her on her way without adding insult to injury. No need to pile on. Tone down the floor debate.

To Carol Molnau. Amor fati. Love your fate...because you have no other choice. Res ipse loquitur. It is what it is. For now.

Because the Carol Molnau I know is a carpe diem kind of gal. Seize the new day in your personal life, or seize it in a reincarnation of your political one. [And please do seize Jesse Ventura's arm, whenever you want.]

Most of the DFL deus ex machina crowd knows in their hearts of hearts that they did you wrong.

The telling of that is in the fact that the dirty deed is being done under cover of today's budget shortfall announcement.

That's a small consolation prize, granted. But after seven months of political onslaught, any prize will do. And, you still have that big prize, Lt. Gov.  You're number two.

Amor fati.

The number one topic of speculation on everyone's mind this week is whether Lt. Gov. and MnDOT Commissioner Carol Molnau should resign.

First, my reasoning. Second, my conclusion.

As I've written before, underfunding transportation infrastructure maintenance has been a decades-long problem, with no political party or person--including Molnau--to blame. Even if transportation infrastructure had been better funded over time, the I-35W Bridge was not on any of the "must do now" lists. The most recent news reports indicate the inspections problem may lie with the federal and the state government.

Never mind.

GOP Gov. Tim Pawlenty has been quite clear that, in the aftermath of the bridge collapse, the transportation funding world changed. He would now support a gas tax increase as part of an increased transportation funding package. The Governor's communications director, Brian McClung, when talking about the Governor's change of heart on a gas tax increase, said, "[T]hese are extraordinary circumstances. The governor feels we need to come together and work as aggressively as we can to address these issues. He thinks that's the right thing for our state."

Under heated questioning from reporters about her long-time opposition to increasing the gas tax, and whether she would support the Governor, the Star Tribune quotes the following as Molnau's response, "On a gas tax, she said, 'we do need to look for resources we can count on long term.' But in order to solve the problem, she said, 'we would have to raise gas taxes 34 or 35 cents a gallon. I don't think the motoring public can sustain that.'"

While Molnau was absolutely dead correct in this answer, it's an obfuscating answer. In times of political crisis, an obfuscating answer is the wrong answer.

As Transportation Commissioner, Molnau serves at the pleasure of the Governor, who appointed her. That should have been her answer, "I serve at the pleasure of the Governor, he decides the policy and I execute that policy."

And therein lies the problem with what seemed to be such a good idea back in 2002 when Pawlenty appointed his Lt. Gov. to be his Transportation Commissioner, the "one-woman SWAT team at MnDOT." [Lost here is the fact that even then, Pawlenty recognized the decades-long problems at MnDOT.] Molnau's role has always been confused. Pawlenty selected Molnau to be his Lt. Gov. running mate at a time when he was facing a conservative credentials showdown for the GOP gubernatorial endorsement against another impeccably credentialed conservative candidate, Brian Sullivan. Her GOP-endorsing delegate bona fides were unimpeachable: An entire legislative record of the right votes on the social issues and the right votes on the fiscal ones, including no funding for the then-highly controversial light rail transit (LRT) and no increasing the gas tax. And, oh, yes, she wore a skirt, not slacks, and lived in the GOP-vote rich western suburbs while at the same time sporting a legitimate rural resume as a former dairy farmer.

As a legislator, Molnau had her own agenda. On transportation funding, that used to match Pawlenty's. Pawlenty changed his mind, or recognized the need for compromise. On LRT, and now, on increasing the gas tax. Molnau doesn't have the standing to somehow try to hang on to some semblance of staying consistent with her previous legislative record. She's not, in President George Bush's infamous words, "the decider." Pawlenty is.

All of which explains her problem at the Legislature, particularly with key Senate player, transportation Policy & Budget Committee Chair Sen. Steve Murphy (DFL-Red Wing). Understandably, he has never been sure he's dealing with former legislative adversary former House GOP Transportation Funding Chair Rep. Carol Molnau, a Lt. Gov., or the Governor's chief transportation policy point person.

Over the years, Molnau has been an exemplary public servant. Knows her stuff, smart as hell, heart of gold. All that. Molnau is the right person for one of the two jobs but not both. Combining the two jobs made sense back in the era of historic budget deficits, but not in the new era of the bridge collapse tragedy. The tough public policy debate ahead requires leadership that can be focused and free from political encumbrances.

My conclusion, then, is that Molnau should step down from the MnDOT job.

With everyone's best wishes, a collective fond remembrance of seriously and hilariously rattling former Independent Gov. Jesse Ventura by tapping his shoulder on the TPT's Almanac famous public policy couch, a clear understanding that the bridge collapse was not her fault, and the same clear understanding that life's not fair--and sometimes political life is exponentially unfair.

[The exchange between Molnau and Ventura happened on the Almanac couch, but not on Almanac, the show. The two appeared on a special edition of the now defunct NewsNight Minnesota on March 3, 2000. That night the show was hosted by Almanac co-host Eric Eskola and Almanac political reporter Mary Lahammer, so most people recall thinking the venue was Almanac. NewsNight discussion links are no longer active. However, an excerpt of the exchange lives online in the Almanac: At the Capitol archives. You can find this link by going here and clicking on the show from March 20th. The exchange can be found at the 23 minute mark of the show.]

The bridge collapse--in what's sure to be an excruciatingly painful process--will put the spotlight on what anyone who has worked in Minnesota transportation policy has known for decades: the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) is a mess. No one administration or political party is to blame. The Rudy Perpich (DFL) Administration (1982-1990), the Arne Carlson (R) Administration (1990-1998), the Jesse Ventura (I) Administration (1998-2002) and the Tim Pawlenty (R) Administration (2002-to present) have all made the same call. There are other, sexier things to fund rather than existing infrastructure and that's what's happened.

In recent years, "sexy" has meant $25 million in state bonding money for a new Guthrie Theater, located on the Mississippi River a mere several blocks from the collapsed bridge, and a new Twins ballpark. Funded with a .15% sales tax on goods and services in Hennepin County, it will be about half mile as the crow flies on the other side of downtown. Ironically, the ceremonial groundbreaking was scheduled for the night after the collapse but was canceled. And, let's not forget that the city of Minneapolis spent $3 million to move the Shubert Theater a few blocks (which stands vacant on Hennepin Avenue where it waits for state bonding money).

Those who have griped about the lack of adequately funding existing road and bridge infrastructure maintenance over the years, mainly the highway contractors, their subcontractors and the unions, never got very far because their interests seemed so self-serving. There was no traction among the general public, who thought new new theaters and stadiums were sexier than roads and bridges, too.

MnDOT has well-documented needs without the means to pay for them. Nationally, funding infrastructure needs has suffered the same "not sexy" problem, along with economics 101, funding guns v. butter. In Minnesota, there are no guns to pay for, but there are people funding needs that weren't in most of the government budgets of the 20th century. There was no "E" for early in the current E-12 education system and funding formulas (the funding of which consumes about half the state's current budget). There was no sense that government needed to provide health insurance for myriad categories of people.

Back to the Pawlenty Administration. There's added transportation funding rancor there that exceeds not just raising the gas tax. When Pawlenty first named Lt. Gov. Carol Molnau to be his Transportation Commissioner, hopes in the transportation community were high. As a legislator, Molnau chaired a transportation funding committee in the House. She "got" the MnDOT mess. The expectation was that she would straighten it out. She did not, for reasons I simply don't know but surmise to be the ones outlined above--no strong political direction to do the dirty work.

Finally, while on the subject of Minnesota transportation commissioners, one of the lowlights this past week was former Jesse Ventura Administration Commissioner of Transportation Elwyn Tinklenberg. Mere hours after the bridge went down, he was being interviewed on KARE-11 TV (our local NBC affiliate) standing in front of the dark Capitol building blathering (there is no better word) about MnDOT's "constant deterioration of the budget, constant layoffs, failure to replace people," etc. Most of what he said was not only not true, but it was crass in the immediate aftermath of the bridge falling down. And for the record, the collective opinion on Tinklenberg in the transporation job was much worse than Molnau's.