The "Pawlenty Of Nothing" Repug

This New York Times story today tells us of Tim Pawlenty, the Repug governor of Minnesota, who has emerged as a “short list” veep candidate for John W. McBush (and Pawlenty is co-chair of McCain’s veep selection committee).

Based on the story, it seems like Pawlenty has largely kept out of the spotlight (admittedly, though, that doesn’t seem to be hard to do in Minnesota – no offense intended), and in his early public life, he seemed to embody what a typical Republican represented; someone fiscally conservative but socially moderate. However, as the fundie nut jobs gradually wrestled control of the party away from them (along with the capitalist greed heads who want to do away with any government whatsoever – see Norquist, Grover), Pawlenty seemed to adopt to them just fine also; as noted below…

Fifteen years ago, while in the State House, Mr. Pawlenty voted to expand rights for gay men and lesbians; he has since said he regrets the vote.

Then, as governor, after a partisan battle with the Legislature and a partial shutdown of the state government, he agreed to a “health impact fee” on cigarettes, irking fiscal conservatives who said he had broken his promise not to raise taxes.

The story also tells us that Pawlenty vetoed 34 bills by Minnesota’s Democratic-controlled legislature, and there was also some question about Pawlenty’s consulting for a telecomm firm in 2001 and 2002 for which he was paid $4,500 a month (and as part of this “shadow man” persona of his, if you will, he refused to take Project Vote Smart’s National Political Awareness Test here).

Also, after the I-35W bridge collapse last year in Minnesota, Pawlenty exercised one of his vetoes on a transportation legislation package that included a gasoline tax increase to pay for bridge repairs. However, that was the first of his vetoes that was overridden.

And it is acknowledged that Pawlenty has shrewdly positioned himself for higher office, even to the point where he alters his haircut from time to time for appearances sake, as noted by his wife (no word on how much his haircuts have cost or whether or not anyone will be calling him “the Breck Boy” any time soon).

Also, Pawlenty is capable of propagandizing with any Repug on the block; this tells us that he spread the lie that Barack Obama would, as president, pass a tax that would affect anyone owning an IRA or a 401(k) (you have to be particularly dumb to bite on something like that, people – you wouldn’t have to declare those earnings unless you withdrew them or had to take a distribution, and unless you’re rich or an older member of the workforce, that wouldn’t apply), and he also wrongly said that Obama flip-flopped on the matter of whether or not he thinks Iran’s Revolutionary Guard is a terrorist organization here.

And Pawlenty has often said that the Repugs should be “the party of Sam’s Club instead of the country club.” That’s a clever catchphrase (the Repugs always seem to come up with this stuff, no matter how much it flies in the face of reality), and I don’t know if Pawlenty had anything to do with it or not.

However, given that Sam’s Club locks in their store employees supposedly to ensure their safety, but really, to combat what they see as pilferage (here), regularly engages in illegal termination and discipline of pro-union employees (here, echoing this post...the "Sam" in Sam's Club is the late Sam Walton, whose family also owns Wal-Of-China Mart), doctors time cards here, denies breaks to keep down labor costs here, and, in this case, had to close the non-refrigerated foods section of one of its stores in Georgia due to a mouse infestation…well, I don’t think Pawlenty has to worry.

I would say the Repugs already meet that low standard, and then some (and Pawlenty can continue this “aw, shucks” act of his a la Mike Huckabee to hide his true wingnuttia, perhaps to the point where he may end up as McBush’s selection after all).

(And by the way, B.J.’s is much better – join them instead.)