Tag: tim pawlenty

#rsrh Thought of the Day, Ace on Stupidity Taxes edition.

Not the lottery*, but the price of doing business with people whose vote inexplicably counts as much as yours does.  Ace of Spades, in the process of explaining why positions taken before a consensus changes need to be perhaps given a little forgiveness**:

I give Tim Pawlenty a break on his cap-and-tax nonsense, too, because, if you remember, a short five years ago it seemed like we were pretty much destined to lose completely on this fight. I didn’t (and still don’t, actually) mind a little window-dressing to let Environmental Saps think we’re really working on cars that run on sunshine and pixie-sweat.

I think of that as the Stupidity Tax — the tax we must all pay to the stupid to be left alone from their plodding economic manslaughter. Obviously you want to pay as little in Stupidity Tax as possible, but sometimes, your choice is really between a low-ish Stupidity Tax (offered by a Republican giving dumb squishes some window-dressing) and a very, very high Stupidity Tax (offered by idiotic liberals who really believe this crap).

Anyway, that situation, too, has changed quickly, and I am willing to grant Pawlenty forgiveness — a temporary insanity plea, if you will — so long as I never hear this crap coming from him again. (Except for some window-dressing Stupidity Tax.)

Continue reading #rsrh Thought of the Day, Ace on Stupidity Taxes edition.

Tim Pawlenty to make 3PM Facebook announcement…

…I can’t begin to imagine what it could possibly be.

Seriously, at this point in the game Governor Pawlenty’s my first choice: he’s got the right credentials (two-term Republican governor in a Blue State), there’s no scandal attached to him, his major problem policy-wise (cap-and-trade) is not really a game-breaker for me*, and he lacks drama.  I am done with drama, thank you.  I’m putting this in RedState’s diary section because the site itself is not endorsing a Tim Pawlenty run, of course; it’s far too early for that and we haven’t really made up our own minds, yet.

At any rate, the announcement will be at 3 PM EST, on Facebook.  Friend Tim Pawlenty to see it.  And I suspect that this site will be getting a major update soon.

Continue reading Tim Pawlenty to make 3PM Facebook announcement…

#rsrh I’m on the blandwagon, myself.

I have the same problems with certain features of this Nate Silver graph that Little Miss Attila, Hot Air, and heck, Nate Silver does: but the relative positions of the various politicians running in 2012 seems reasonably intuitive.

Then again, I’m generally for Pawlenty*.  I’ve had enough excitement lately, thanks:  I just want somebody who can balance the blipping budget without too much drama.

Moe Lane

*I’m also generally for staying out of the primaries as much as is practical for a writer affiliated with one of the largest and most influential right-wing political blogs.  Which is to say, I’m not going to be too successful at staying out of it, but hopefully I won’t get sucked into anything resembling the 2008 GOP primary season.

Tim Pawlenty, Homebrew protector.

(via @baseballcrank & The Weekly Standard) This could actually have an effect on my eventual pick for the 2012 nomination:

Pawlenty signs “basement brewing” bill

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – Brewers in Minnesota can now legally make their concoctions in their basements.

Gov. Tim Pawlenty signed a bill Thursday that makes it legal for beverages to be brewed in the basement of a building.

I’ve spent twenty years hanging with people who make their own beer, and I am a much better man for it.  Aside from everything else, it means that I never blighted my life drinking bad, mass-produced, beer-flavored water.  Ending the federal ban on homebrewing is the one of the few good things that Jimmy Carter ever did: that Governor Pawlenty has the good sense to make it easier for people to learn what is a quite useful and very marketable skill speaks well of him.

Pawlenty skips SRLC for MN NG troop return.

Well, this is gratifyingly not 2012-related:

Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty will miss a major Republican gathering next month of possible 2012 GOP presidential contenders and instead will attend a welcome home ceremony for troops returning from Iraq, a Pawlenty spokesman tells CNN.

The two-term Minnesota governor, who is considering a bid for his party’s presidential nomination in the next election, was scheduled to attend the Southern Republican Leadership Conference in New Orleans.

[snip]

Instead of going to New Orleans, Pawlenty will appear at the April 10 welcome home ceremony for the Minnesota National Guard’s 34th Red Bull Infantry Division. The approximate 1,200 troops are finishing a long deployment to Iraq. Pawlenty was also at the unit’s sendoff.

I was contemplating going to SRLC myself, but my excuse for not going is much more prosaic: I can’t afford to. Which is life.

Anyway, as you may remember, I had a chance to utterly ignore time limits and ask him a couple of questions at CPAC; he’s stereotypically Minnesota Nice.  It’s also gratifying for this story about him picking greeting his state’s troops over a political meet-and-greeting to be not put out as a partisan political issue.

After all, that’s my job.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

CPAC 2010: Three minutes with T-Paw.

Governor Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota was swinging through Bloggers’ Row there, so of course we had to chat. Nice guy; very centered.

I was trying to think of some way of saying that I’m sorry that my little bit of extra monopolization of the Governor’s time was an inconvenience to a couple of staffers (I know some of those people, after all) without saying I’m sorry for the monopolization itself (because I’m, well, not); but then I realized that all I had to do was just write that out. As a writing strategy, it seems… remarkably straightforward. I should try it more often.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

Pawlenty not running for third term.

Via NTCNews:

Sources: No 3rd Governor Term For Pawlenty

Two sources have confirmed that Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty will announce that he will not seek re-election in 2010.

The sources confirmed to WCCO-TV political reporter Pat Kessler that the announcement about Pawlenty’s future plans will include an announcement that he will not seek a third term.

The general assumption seems to be that this means that he’ll be running for President in 2012. All I know is that, at the rate things are going, he may be out of office before the 2008 Senate race gets resolved…

Crossposted to RedState.