Politico: Steadfast McCain ally sparks veep talk

[question everything]

Steadfast McCain ally sparks veep talk
By: Jonathan Martin
February 18, 2008


Even through the McCain campaign’s darkest days in 2007, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty remained a steadfast ally to the Arizona senator in his bid for the Republican presidential nomination. As a result, with John McCain as the clear GOP front-runner and insider talk turning to speculation about his possible running mate, party insiders are now buzzing about the 47-year-old, second-term governor’s vice presidential prospects.

Vin Weber, a Minnesota congressman-turned-Washington-lobbyist who is one of Pawlenty’s biggest boosters, ticks off the list of appealing traits. “First of all, his age is attractive,” Weber says, hinting at the nearly quarter-century difference between his fellow Minnesotan and the 71-year-old McCain. “Second, he’s from outside Washington. Third, he represents a battleground part of the country. And he has a nice balance of, on one hand being totally acceptable to the conservative wing of the party, especially to social conservatives, but at the same time sharing a couple of key maverick strains of thought with McCain.”

(snip)

Two phrases tend to pop up in every Pawlenty profile: “truck driver” and “hockey.” His mother died of cancer when he was 16 and he was reared in a working-class neighborhood — later featured in a campaign commercial — by a Teamster father who brought up five kids on a milk truck driver’s salary. And even though he topped out on his high school’s junior varsity squad, Pawlenty still laces up the skates and plays ice hockey with other over-the-hill ex-jocks. Add in his fondness for fishing — after hockey, the state’s other obsession — and “TPaw”, as the North Star State chattering class calls him, fits the mold of an average Minnesota guy. That regular-guy, suburban persona is matched with retail political skills that have enabled him to twice win election in a left-leaning state with a long progressive tradition.

(snip)

Along with many other governors, Pawlenty has seized on the issue of global warming and has used much of his second term to promote energy conservation with a goal of producing 25 percent of the state’s electricity by renewable sources by 2025. The I-35W crisis last summer may have helped Pawlenty in other ways, too. “He did everything Bush didn’t do with Katrina,” notes Carleton College political science professor Steven Schier. “He was on the scene and people liked that.”

(snip)

And that may be one of Pawlenty’s biggest assets. Beyond passing the conservative litmus test and appealing to swing voters, he is the lone big-state, two-term Republican governor in the heartland. And Minnesota’s media markets reach into two other traditionally contested states along the upper Mississippi River, Wisconsin and Iowa. With Democratic governors holding power in those two states — as well as in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan — the bench of Republican chief executives in the Midwest is awfully thin.

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http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0208/8558.html

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. My governor. Around here we call him "Timmy the Tool."

And he is a tool. If McCain turns a corner too sharply Timmy's nose will break.

You know that big freeway bridge that fell into the Mississippi last summer? Timmy doesn't like spending public money on boring shit like freeways and bridges and schools. But Timmy does like spending public money to be sure rich sports teams owners have big expensive stadiums to play in. Timmy's grotesque little Republican soul belongs to the Taxpayer's League, so he does his best to be sure no tax money is ever spent on people who actually need help.

Timmy sucks hog balls.

[SomeGuyInEagan]

2. "Timmy the Tool"

In the last election, I believe he was the LONE Republican incumbent to win his/her state job for another term and his race came down to the last few days of the campaign. And in doing so, he pissed off many of the state Republicans:

http://articles.citypages.com/2006-11-15/news/fade-to-blue/full/

http://articles.citypages.com/2006-11-15/news/night-of-the-short-knives/full/

He makes the short list for VP only because so many Republican governors and senators running for re-election in 2006 got their heads handed to them ... the "Tool" was nearly one of them, too.

Our state is in trouble on many levels - once among the leaders in public k-12 and higher education (now in the middle of the pack); statewide road system is falling apart and so congested that some state Republicans and even business groups are now lobbying for higher gas taxes to do SOMETHING, ANYTHING; state's social safety nets disappearing. We lack a governor with courage, vision and leadership abilities. Instead, he have a governor who sold his soul to the no tax crowd (he proudly signed their petition when running for office in 2002).

On the plus side, because of the 2006 elections, we now have veto-proof DFL controlled state house and senate, who announced this week that they will give him one chance this session to sign a bi-partisan gas tax increase (has not been increased since 1988, not even adjusted for inflation). They say he gets one chance to sign - if not, they will simply over-ride his veto. Hopefully they will.

[geardaddy]

3. Timmy the Tool

won the last election because a load of DFLers in Minneapolis voted for Hutchinson instead of Hatch, because they thought Hatch was a "meany". We have those idiots to thank.