Don't Start the Revolution Without Me! - Jesse Ventura [57]
Fortunately, Shirley was very good friends with Tim Penny, a former Minnesota Congressman. Tim was a rogue moderate Democrat, cosponsor of the famous Penny-Kasich bill to balance the budget in Washington. He’d resigned from the House out of his disgust with what the political process was becoming. I’ll never forget the phone call Shirley made to the Congressman that day. She found out that my election had been his son’s first opportunity to vote. He’d pulled the lever for this ex-wrestler third-party maniac, or whatever else I’d been labeled, and he’d come home and told his father.
I whispered, “Shirley, tell him we always have a twelve-step program for all recovering Democrats and Republicans.”
Tim was ready to help us regardless. “There’s only one guy I know who has the ability to step in and organize at this level,” he said. That was his former chief of staff in Washington, Steven Bosacker. Steven now held a similar position with the Board of Regents at the University of Minnesota. Tim called Steven who, that Saturday night, came out to my house. We hadn’t talked long before I knew I had my chief of staff. Not only could I see that he was immensely qualified, but when we talked politics, Steven informed me that back in the eighties he had voted for John Anderson for President. A third-party candidate. So had I. He wouldn’t feel that only a Democrat or Republican could get the job done.
To give you an idea of how good Steven was: We were in the transition period and all putting in long hours; twelve-hour days down in the bowels of the Capitol. One Sunday morning, something came into my head that I wanted to make sure I didn’t forget. So I called Steven’s office, just to put my thought onto his answering machine. After one ring, he picked up the phone. I said, “Steven, it’s Sunday, what are you doing there?” He said, “Oh, I had some loose ends to tie up. I’ll probably be here until two or three in the afternoon.” That showed me a man who goes above and beyond the call of duty. I need him—the man behind the scenes. Today, Steven runs the city of Minneapolis for the current Democratic mayor.
I took heat because a great many people who’d worked on my campaign did not receive jobs at the Capitol. Even from the grass roots, the rumbles reached me that people had expected that. I countered by saying, “If we’re not going to be something different, why did I run? Which means, get rid of the nepotism and the cronyism. We’re going to hire the best people for the job based on their ability, not simply because they were there.”
As I started putting my team together, I told the media, “I feel like Rodney Dangerfield. It’s time to go ‘Back to School.’” A number of people came forward who wanted to contribute, like my commissioner of finance, Pam Wheelock. She had worked for my Republican opponent, Norm Coleman, who was then Mayor of St. Paul. During transition, I borrowed Pam to help put together my first budget, and she stayed on. Mayor Coleman was extremely gracious, saying, “I won’t stand in the way.”
I teased Pam about coming along to Washington, in case I someday ran for President. She paused a moment and said, “Gee, I don’t know if I could handle that.” I said, “But Pam, you’re just dealing with a different set of numbers, changing from millions to trillions.” She laughed and said, “You’re right, sure I’d go.”
TERRY: I assumed that the attention from Minnesotans would be intense. I had no clue—and why would you?—that the entire world would be constantly knocking at your door. That really amazed me. We received articles from Germany, Australia, New Zealand, Norway, Japan, everywhere.
The swearing-in ceremony we did very traditionally, in the rotunda of the Capitol. In my speech, I talked about how I would certainly make mistakes, but would do the best job I possibly could. I spoke of