Ron Fournier at National Journal had, um,  a curious take on the Pawlenty legacy:

What a shame. What a shame that Pawlenty bowed to the tea party wing of his party and abandoned the qualities that made him a popular two-term Minnesota governor. He was once known for his blue-state moderation and political courage.

Political courage?  Fournier got that right.  Politically, the guy was King Leonidas.

But I can just hear the Twin Cities’ leftybloggers squealing like stuck little piggies over that “blue-state moderation” bit.  Yeah, TPaw got a reputation as a “moderate” in the MN House.  And he was too moderate on fringe issues for some conservatives.

But the defining events of his administration – every one of them – related to his dogged adherence to his promise to stick to his “no new taxes” pledge, made to put him over the top in the 2002 GOP convention.

In that respect – the one that matters – Pawlenty was a Tea Partier years before anyone used the term.

Not anymore. A fact that says as much about today’s GOP as it does about Pawlenty himself.

No.  It says as much about the myopia of the media – its desire to conjure a “moderate GOP” from nowhere, or its need to do so for the benefit of the Democrats – as it does about the GOP.

And I think even the Twin Cities’ DFL would agree. Right?

This entry was posted by by Mitch Berg on Tuesday, August 16th, 2011 at 4:07 am and is filed under Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.