As is now the custom, Gov. Tim Pawlenty's campaign announced today that it will announce next week that Pawlenty is joining the freak show that is the Republican race to be beaten by President Obama in 2012.
And apparently, he has about as much enthusiasm for it as the vast majority of Republicans who don't even know who he is:
Via ThinkProgress:
And when I ask Pawlenty, during a second interview in Des Moines, Iowa, exactly when he decided he was up to the grand challenge of the presidency, he answers in less than grandiose terms, explaining how he’d set up a political-action committee in 2009. I try again, saying I am curious about when he first imagined himself worthy of the history books, ready to send soldiers to their deaths and endure the national stage’s harsh toll. “I don’t know,” he replies. “I wish I had a good answer for you on that.” Pawlenty says it is not an idea that crossed his mind 15 or 20 years ago but that as he considered life as a relatively young ex-governor, he felt obliged not to take the easy path and “go make some money and play hockey and drink beer.”
Pawlenty might be hoping that at the current rate of self-immolation by his fellow Republican contenders, he could be the last man standing. But if the attack from his Republican predecessor in Minnesota, Arne Carlson, is any indication, that might not be so easy:
“Under Tim Pawlenty, it became deficit heaven,” said Carlson. “All the things we did were undone. Now, what bothers me is you get these holier-than-thou attitudes. Oh, we’re all to blame. But that’s just not true. There’s one person who has the power to insist on a balanced budget. That’s the chief executive officer, the governor.”
In fact, Pawlenty will probably have quite a bit of trouble running on his fiscal conservatism:
A close look at Pawlenty's record in Minnesota, and conversations with former Republican allies in the state, suggest that the former governor's tough rhetoric does not match Minnesota's reality.
Pawlenty did veto almost all proposed tax increases, apart from one on cigarettes labeled a "health impact fee." He curbed the rate of growth in state spending -- though not growth overall.
But to do that, he relied on money from the federal stimulus -- a program he has decried as wasteful -- and other one-time fixes. He postponed school and other obligations, leading to hikes in local property taxes and strains on school districts as burdens shifted downward.
Most strikingly, he left the state with a $5-billion projected deficit, one of the highest in the nation as a percentage of the state's general fund, only slightly trailing California's massive gap.
Hmm. Maybe Pawlenty ought to reconsider that beer and hockey thing after all.