A New Job for Jesse?

So … no?
Right now I'm living the dream life. My attitude when I'm in Mexico is I wake up in the morning with nothing to do and I go to bed half done. I don't wear a watch. When I live down there, I do nothing according to time. I eat when I'm hungry and go to sleep when I'm tired. I live half the year in Mexico, I'm surfing. I live an hour from pavement and an hour from electricity. That's a big change between there and Washington. When you reach a certain age in life, time becomes more important than money, and I think that happens in your 50s.

But?
[The Senate seat] is available and it's now, and I think they're beatable. I'm getting all these Minnesotans coming up to me every day telling me to run. It's out there again, the groundswell. People want someone to go out there to shake up Washington. I keep saying to myself, if not me, then who?

What will help you decide?
I'm meeting today with close, key people to discuss strategy and discuss if we were to move forward with a campaign, what do we want to do here.

Is money a factor?
I will not spend the money that these people will spend. I live by simple creed that my father told me years ago. My father once said to me, "All politicians are crooks."  I said, "Come on, Dad, how can you make a blanket statement like that?" He said because they spend a million dollars for a job that pays $100,000 a year. It's based completely on panhandling and bribery. I despise that. I have a standard rule that I will not spend more than I make. The Senate pays roughly $170,000, so that would mean I would have the ability to go to a million bucks. Coleman and Franken may spend as high as $25 million combined. Imagine how angry they would be if I won again.

What would your platform be?
The economy. We've got to get our hands around the throat of this deficit. I would not vote for any bill unless it was revenue-neutral. That means if something cost $2 million, I would take $2 million out of the budget. And the [Iraq War]. People are finally starting to feel the pain over this war. Now our economy is in the toilet and the war has played a major role in it. We should have never gone in. This was a war built on fraud. Also, I would work on finance reform. I want to pass a law that you can only accept money in the state you're running in, because that would weaken these two federal parties.

What have you learned about dealing with the press over the years?
I don't worry about it because I deal with the simple philosophy that if you simply tell the truth then you don't have to have a good memory. If I'm going to get in trouble, let me get in trouble at least for telling the truth.