VENTURA WRITES TELL-ALL BIOGRAPHY

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) In his new autobiography, Gov. Jesse "The Body"
Ventura brags about losing his virginity at 16 to win a bet, tells of
visiting prostitutes in Nevada, admits he used marijuana and steroids and
confides he doesn't wear underwear.

Published by Random House/Villard, "I Ain't Got Time to Bleed: Re-working
the Body Politic From the Bottom Up" is available online and hits stores
later this month.

For some lawmakers, the former pro wrestler's $19.95 tell-all is a
tell-too-much.

"If Minnesotans didn't know Jesse Ventura when they elected him, they
certainly do now. I guess that proves that ignorance is bliss," said state
Sen. Roy Terwilliger, a Republican. "Frankly, I miss the bliss."

Ventura, who shocked Minnesota's political establishment with his
third-party upset victory last fall, confesses to everything from juvenile
"mischief" stealing a ladder and throwing it through a school window to some
serious adult carousing.

He says he and his high school friends had a bet over who would be first to
lose his virginity. Ventura won on New Year's Eve, in his good friend Jerry
Flatgard's bed.

"But don't worry, Jerry wasn't with me. We weren't that close!" Ventura writes.

As he escorted the girl out of the house, he gave the thumbs-up to his
buddies when she wasn't looking. "And it was funny, but after that night I
was never again with her. It was just one of those things," he says.

The book is blunt, blustery and profane, like Ventura the man. He boasts
that he was the first Minneapolis high school swimmer to break one minute in
the 100-yard butterfly, and he declares: "I was the greatest announcer
wrestling's ever had."

Even his account of a visit to a Nevada bordello during his Navy days is a
cause for self-congratulation. He tells of selling his belt made of
machine-gun shell casings to a hooker in return for her services, plus
$10.

"I'm probably one of the only people in the world who's gone into a Nevada
ranch and been paid," he writes. "I used that $10 to go to another one."

(During the campaign, Ventura called prostitution a victimless crime and
suggested that Minnesota consider legalizing it.)

Most of the first 38 pages of the 208-page volume are a recap of where he
stands on such issues as urban sprawl and the role of government. As for his
election, he says: "The bottom line is that my opponents were boring."

The former Navy SEAL describes his 17 months of duty in Southeast Asia late
during the Vietnam War as more partying than fighting. He says he loved life
in the Philippines, with lots of drinking, sex and indecent
exposure during "skivvy checks" on bar tabletops.

Navy SEALs don't wear underwear, Ventura relates, and the skivvy checks were
done to prove it.

"To this day, I still honor that tradition most of the time," he writes.

Ventura signed the book deal for "mid-six figures" a month after his
election and dictated most of it into a tape recorder for a ghostwriter. He
has said some of the proceeds will go toward teaching young Minnesotans
about politics.