Pawlenty Cozies Up to Fat Cats
This after news today that John McCain wouldn't win Minnesota if the election were held today. And, of course, a week or so after the GOP whined about Rep. Walz raising money with Speaker Pelosi. At least that fundraiser was here in Minnesota, and not in swanky Georgetown, DC. And with lobbyists? I just can't believe it.About 200 Republican bold-faced names crowded into former RNC chairman Ken Mehlman's Georgetown townhouse last night for an event that one attendee said "felt like the kick-off for Pawlenty for Vice President." Officially, the bill was a fundraiser for Pawlenty's gubernatorial re-election. As the Politico's Mike Allen notes, the Republican government-in-exile all came together: former rep/lobbyist Vin Weber, former White House political director Sara Taylor and major McCain advisers/fundraisers Fred Malek and Wayne Berman. Senior Congressional and White House staffers with Minnesota connections were also invited.
To his guests, Mehlman wondered why so many people would show up on a beautiful night in DC to hang with the governor of Minnesota. But then, Mehlman said, with tongue planted in cheek, that he heard the governor's wife call him "45."
"45" -- as in, the next, next president of the United States, after 43's successor -- John McCain (or Mehlman's old Harvard Law School buddy, Barack Obama) will serve as 44.
The voters are turning against Gov. Pawlenty. They soundly rejected Pawlenty's chosen candidate for president on Feb. 5th, and few to the right of Michael Brodkorb are happy about his line-item veto of the bonding bill. All this, of course, in addition to Pawlenty's repeated claims that he would serve out his gubernatorial term.
Tough to say: would you rather see Tim Pawlenty's vice-presidential (and ultimately presidential) ambitions left in the dust by his BFF John McCain, or see him make a liar...out of himself?
UPDATE: Here's the Strib article.
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