Well, actually I’m not sure nuff said, quite says it all.
I attended most Minnesota State GOP Conventions from 1972 until Tim Pawlenty’s nomination in 2002. The last one I just made a brief visit to for old time’s sake. I was rooting for Pawlenty over Brian Sullivan but winced at his kow towing to the no nothings who demanded that he sign a pledge for no new taxes. It was the first evidence that he would do almost anything required of him by the Roger Ailes crowd to stay in favor.
I found a clipping last week from a few years ago that I was using as a book mark in my copy of “The Godless Constitution” by Isaac Kramnick and R Laurence Moore. The story was published in the Trib on June 16th, 2005 and was about one of the GOP’s top political correctness enforcers, Grover Norquist, beating Pawlenty up for raising “fees” and refusing to acknowledge that they were taxes.
Norquist was right and Pawlenty was playing word games to get hold of a little more money. Tim has been much truer to the neo GOP orthodoxy ever since. He’d like to be President so he can bring his Minnesota example of GOP purity to the national scene.
Palin, who aced Pawlenty out with the McCain team and who has since left him behind in the demography department has become the Big Sister of the GOP. Her posters loom over all GOP gatherings and her admirers are mesmerized by her chutzpa in speaking out of both sides of her mouth, ignoring reality, and her truthy approach to solving the world’s big problems. “Drill baby drill!”
The GOP convention seemed to appreciate her Gubenatorial choice, Tom Emmer’s, Palinesque certainty and confidence. He’s kind of pretty too and I think he was a hockey player like the man he hopes to succeed. That inspires confidence.
