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Tim Pawlenty at the National Governors Association meeting on May 28: a rising star in the Republican firmament who is closely allied to the religious right in Minnesota.
Rumor has it that the announcement of John McCain’s running mate is imminent. But whether the putative Republican presidential nominee announces his choice for vice-president next week or the week after that, it is difficult to believe that McCain will wait until the Republican National Convention in September. In fact, in recent times, no presidential candidate of either major party has waited until his party’s convention to announce his running mate, which is one reason why the media find the conventions so boring.
On August 29 — only two days before the convention commences –the senior senator from Arizona will turn 72, becoming the oldest presidential nominee of a major party in US history. Given his age and his health problems, it is not at all impossible that McCain, if elected in November, could be the first president to die in office (of natural causes) since Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1944. And so the speculation regarding McCain’s running mate has taken on special significance.
On all of the lists of possible McCain running mates, Tim Pawlenty is either at or near the top.
At $16.02, Pawlenty comes in second after Mitt Romney at $43.57 in an ABC7 Futures Market. While the current governor of Minnesota trails the former governor of Massachusetts in the betting pool run by the New York City affiliate of the national network, Pawlenty is way ahead of the rest of the competition:
other: $6.78
Bobby Jindal: $6.38
Colin Powell : $3.64
Joe Lieberman: $3.63
Charlie Crist : $3.36
Rob Portman : $2.99
Sarah Palin : $2.49
Mike Huckabee : $2.00
Rudy Giuliani : $0.60
Lindsey Graham : $0.43
If Pawlenty is, after Romney, the odds-on favorite for Republican vice-presidential nominee, his record as governor of Minnesota deserves close scrutiny. So who is Tim Pawlenty?
“Even as the rest of the nation gets acquainted with the sunny kid from South St. Paul, people who’ve watched him for years can’t agree on some pretty basic things: how he thinks, what he believes, who he is,” Michael Tortorello wrote in a full-length profile of Pawlenty for Minnesota Monthly. “To Minnesotans, this highly scripted Pawlenty appears about as authentic as one of those kids on The Hills, as if he’s trying out for a part on a political soap opera, and it’s not clear how many episodes he’s going to get,” Tortorello added in writing about the governor’s recent appearances in the national media.
“Tim Pawlenty racked up more vetoes this year than any governor in Minnesota’s history,” City Pages noted in a review of the man the alternative newsweekly called ‘Governor No.’ Among the 34 vetoes of 2008 was Pawlenty’s veto of a bill that would have raised the state’s minimum wage from $6.15 an hour to $7.75. Pawlenty also vetoed a state education bill that would have included sex education as part of the curriuculum. And the governor vetoed a proposed expansion of state health care insurance coverage and another bill that would have pooled health insurance to include all employees of public schools in Minnesota.
“Believe it or not, it’s illegal for Minnesota cities and counties to provide health insurance to their employees’ domestic partners,” notes the Village Voice-owned City Pages. Most directly relevant to the LGBT community, Pawlenty vetoed a bill that would have lifted that prohibition. OutFront Minnesota points out that “no positive legislation” that pertains to the LGBT community became law in the 2008 legislative session thanks to Pawlenty’s close alliance with groups like the Minnesota Family Council. “We can thank the political pandering of Governor Pawlenty to the social conservatives who got him elected for this state of affairs,” declared the statewide LGBT advocacy organization on its website.
The Minnesota Family Council is the largest religious right organization in the state, and Pawlenty’s willingness to do its bidding suggests that he would be a formidable adversary of the LGBT community as vice-president of the United States.
“Me Thinks He doest Protest Too Much”!
Usually the most outspoken Right Winged Politicians are the ones getting a Blow Job behind a building, under a bathroom stall or with underage workers put in the charge of these pervs. Wake up GLBT community before our 14th Amendment Rights are completely taken away. Minnesota recently had about 5 of the top 20 places in America to live, that is unless you’re a minority.
I am so glad the story of Mr. Pawlenty and his dancing with the devil in the guise of a Right Winged Religious Movement was put here for the GLBT community to become acquainted with yet another foe of the GLBT movement.
The problem with us is that the vast majority of Gay men are more interested in the new in color for their Polo shirts this year or the best place to attend a White Party. We seem to have one of the most apathetic populations of any minority in America. Examples: Continued support for Bette Midler after she came out against Gay Marriage (How quickly they forget who made their career) or Elton John making music with M&M (after M&M called for killing gays in his album) and lastly the new acceptance of Donna Summer (after she turned her back on the Gay movement to become a Born Again Christian). Wake up and become involved lest we lose our opportunity to be involved in protecting our Constitutional Rights!
Mr. Pawlenty has surely caved in to the right for political gain. I wrote him many letters showing him that his anti gay stand violates all human rights laws in the U.S.. I sent him a letter showing him that the state constitution that forbids same sex marriage is unconstitutional. Mr. Pawlenty never responded to any of these letters. But letters sent on other issues he responded quickly, what does he fear? But the reality of the political climate concerning the GLBT community in America there are no law makers in Washington that are friends to the GLBT communtiy. Most states do not have any law makers that are friendly to the GLBT community. Today “we the people” have a voice, tommorrow “we the people” will not have a voice. I have a hard time understanding why the GLBT community insist on voting for those that say they support the GLBT community but do not support the U.S. Constitution. Any law maker that will not perform their oath to uphold and protect the U.S. Constitutional at all cost is not a friend of the GLBT communtiy. Without our Constitutional freedoms the GLBT community has no voice. Obama, Clinton and McCain have repeatedly voted to silence “we the people” which includes the GLBT communtiy. I do not believe the GLBT communtiy is standing up for their true Constitutional rights as Americans. It does not make any difference who is elected to office if “we the people” refuse to stand for the U.S. Constitution we all loose.
Tim Pawlenty has become so antigay that in the last couple of years he even suggested that the one vote he would like to have back is his vote for the Minnesota Human Rights Act. He’s even offered up the idea that he’d like to repeal that law! My spouse works at a law firm with several Republican partners who know Pawlenty, and they’ve told us that the governor refuses to soften his antigay positions at all–it’s not open for discussion.
That said, he’s a very popular governor who cultivates a “nice guy” image and is smart enough to try to appeal to seniors, environmentalists and others who would normally vote Democratic. The GLBT community seems to be the one group he’s very, very happy to stomp on. So beware–this guy would be bad news for GLBT equality.
What’s worse is that I don’t even think Pawlenty is really anti-gay, he is just willing to sell out or community for political gain. As a state representative he actually was one of a few republicans to support the Minnesota Human Rights Act, an early state to protect gays and lesbians from discrimination and the first to protect gender identity. Since running for governor, he has taken a much more hardlined apporach against LGBT issues, including opposing legislation to allow a state employee to take time off to attend the funeral of a domestic partner (berevement leave). Can you get more evil? Again, if he clearly had moral or religious opposition to our community at least you could say he was principled (as misguided as it is). Here, it is clear Pawlenty knows these positions are wrong, but doesn’t care if it means furhtering his political capital.