[Speed Gibson,
Friday August 8, 2008 at 1:16am]
The Party's Over
Three years ago, Powerline's John Hinderaker and former Minnesota GOP chair Ron Eibensteiner said this via the Minneapolis Star Tribune:
I stopped calling him Governor some time ago when Eric Eskola so correctly observed that he was behaving more like a Prime Minister. He has had his moments, but his maverick ways and numerous unforced errors (always toward the Left) continue to frustrate much of the Republican base. His latest? Our Conservative ideas are old, tired, not workable in the Party of Pawlenty. We're too ideological (principled), too stuck in the past (educated), too inflexible (responsible).
Details with appropriate reaction and scorn were posted at Residual Forces, Nihilist in Golf Pants and Our House. Let me quote Lady Margaret in particular:
Yes, Tim Pawlenty is a failure. He has reached his level of political incompetence. Incredibly, some score him atop the Veep leader board, but then, look who's making the decision...
Sure, he had a great opening two years, closing the mega-honking deficit, but really, what choice did he have? It was too soon to raise taxes, given the 2002 Convention where he pried the nomination away from Brian Sullivan, claiming he was a Conservative, too.
Years three and four? He got rolled by the DFL, raised taxes, then openly and defiantly lied to us about it. And he got rolled by Dean Johnson, who has maybe a tenth the political skills of Pawlenty. Johnson simply lied his way through and Pawlenty couldn't find the words - or his spine.
Years five and six? First, there really shouldn't have been more than four years of Pawlenty. He was barely re-elected and only because Mike Hatch fumbled on the goal line, over-reacting to a minor gaffe by his running mate. That said, yes he vetoed a lot of bad DFL legislation. Friends, even Hatch would have had to veto some of those bills. The real hero of 2007 was House Minority Leader Marty Siefert, incidentally. We also have to thank Larry Pogemiller for overplaying his hand.
State spending is still shooting up faster than inflation, personal income or GDP, and faster than it did under Arne Carlson who was no Conservative, either. Meanwhile, we also got a junk science Smoking Ban to put dozens of establishments out of business and a stadium for billionaire Carl Pohlad. And we have his absurd and unworkable energy legislation that almost certainly will have to be repealed as the due dates approach.
Can Pawlenty win a third term? Maybe if the DFL nominates Sonia Pitt, but with the base angry again, by his own words, a Primary challenge looms large, and defeat all but certain even if he makes it to November.
The Party of Pawlenty is over. His future has to be in Washington now.
Gov. Tim Pawlenty is the best thing that has happened to Minnesota and our party in a long time. He is as smart as anyone in politics, and is a likable guy who has connected with Minnesota’s voters. In challenging times, he is doing a superb job.I wonder if they still feel the same way, that Mr. Pawlenty is the best Governor in recent memory?
I stopped calling him Governor some time ago when Eric Eskola so correctly observed that he was behaving more like a Prime Minister. He has had his moments, but his maverick ways and numerous unforced errors (always toward the Left) continue to frustrate much of the Republican base. His latest? Our Conservative ideas are old, tired, not workable in the Party of Pawlenty. We're too ideological (principled), too stuck in the past (educated), too inflexible (responsible).
Details with appropriate reaction and scorn were posted at Residual Forces, Nihilist in Golf Pants and Our House. Let me quote Lady Margaret in particular:
Pawlenty says that the ideas "are tired." I'm sorry, but having watched his career for some time now, I can say with some degree of confidence that Tim Pawlenty wouldn't know an idea if it bit him in the ass. For Pawlenty, if the politics works, the ideas work.I do next to no graphics here at Speed Gibson, but I'm tempted to put up a picture of our Prime Minister with a big red FAIL in the corner.
Yes, Tim Pawlenty is a failure. He has reached his level of political incompetence. Incredibly, some score him atop the Veep leader board, but then, look who's making the decision...
Sure, he had a great opening two years, closing the mega-honking deficit, but really, what choice did he have? It was too soon to raise taxes, given the 2002 Convention where he pried the nomination away from Brian Sullivan, claiming he was a Conservative, too.
Years three and four? He got rolled by the DFL, raised taxes, then openly and defiantly lied to us about it. And he got rolled by Dean Johnson, who has maybe a tenth the political skills of Pawlenty. Johnson simply lied his way through and Pawlenty couldn't find the words - or his spine.
Years five and six? First, there really shouldn't have been more than four years of Pawlenty. He was barely re-elected and only because Mike Hatch fumbled on the goal line, over-reacting to a minor gaffe by his running mate. That said, yes he vetoed a lot of bad DFL legislation. Friends, even Hatch would have had to veto some of those bills. The real hero of 2007 was House Minority Leader Marty Siefert, incidentally. We also have to thank Larry Pogemiller for overplaying his hand.
State spending is still shooting up faster than inflation, personal income or GDP, and faster than it did under Arne Carlson who was no Conservative, either. Meanwhile, we also got a junk science Smoking Ban to put dozens of establishments out of business and a stadium for billionaire Carl Pohlad. And we have his absurd and unworkable energy legislation that almost certainly will have to be repealed as the due dates approach.
Can Pawlenty win a third term? Maybe if the DFL nominates Sonia Pitt, but with the base angry again, by his own words, a Primary challenge looms large, and defeat all but certain even if he makes it to November.
The Party of Pawlenty is over. His future has to be in Washington now.
That said, personally, I think Pawlenty is still the best thing to happen to the Republican Party for many years. I know that a lot of people want to see MN become a one-party DLF controlled state, but I'm certainly not ready for that yet. Although, after Nov, the state is going to be pretty much DFL controlled anyways, as Pawlenty will no longer be able to sustain a veto anymore. The governor's office will become little more then ceremonial for many years to come, I believe.
However, I am not sure who conservatives have to run for the governor's office if Pawlenty doesn't run for a 3rd term, much less actually challange him successfully. We saw how well the 2006 attempt went, and after conservatives decimated the MNGOP ranks, who is there going to be in 2010 that would be able to successfully challange him?
Possibly, in the sense that conservatives seem much happier griping about the government than they are actually running it. One thing I will say about conservatism has never failed because at least according to it's advocates, once a conservative politician fails, he ceases to be conservative.
Governor Pawlenty is not one of my favorite politician, and it is true that on one or two occasions, there have been lapses from the One True Conservative Faith. Still more than many politicians, he has done what he said he would do. If the state of Minnesota after six years of conservative Republican leadership, I really don't think the increase in the cigarette tax can assume all the blame.
I think the other reply is right on in some aspects. It's easier for conservatives to whine and gripe then to win the political power to make change. So that's what they do.
I also vote, in every electoral contest, for the most conservative candidate with a realistic chance to win, which historically has always been the Republican over the Democrat. If you have a better way to get more conservative government in place, let me know. Meanwhile, we can and should complain, even more than we do and directly to the offending official. But it does no good to complain to a candidate that does not win office, and Democrats are remarkably unresponsive to conservative complaints. Winning isn't enough, that's true, but without winning you not only get nothing, you get people actively working AGAINST you on the issues.
So what's the point of a Pawlenty? It simply takes him about 6 years to go the same distance a Moe or Hatch would go in 4 years. And in about the same direction.
This conservative distaste for Pawlenty really astonishes me. He has really done an excellent job of keeping his promises. The only question I have is whether they were promises worth keeping. If things haven't been working out so well, and they haven't, it's hard to blame that on the cigarette tax.
Hey, don't mention things like that. Those kind of facts are the things that upset conservatives ideas of reforming their world.
After all, why go through all the work to protect the conservative values that we still do have for 6 years, when we could do nothing and lose them all in 4 years?
Besides, if we keep propogating the idea that Pawlenty doesn't actually do anything for conservatives, it will make it easy to believe that nothing has changed next session when the DFL has a veto-proof legislature. And if they have a veto-proof legislature, why should we care in 2010 about electing another Republican when it won't make any difference?
And what's this about a veto-proof legislature? We have Republicans running for every seat in the House, for the first time in a long time. Get them elected!
I worked my butt off in 2006 to elect Republicans and keep the state legislature in GOP hands. And you know what? Conservatives screwed me over. The conservatives that I knew personally not only didn't to anything to stop the DFL from taking control, they were actually downright gleeful when the DFL swept the elections. Gotta teach those Republicans a lesson you know.
Now that the DFL raised the gas tax, *now* conservatives want to "win." I can't say I'm more then just a little be bitter. It's one thing to be defeated by your enemies. It's another thing to be stabbed in the back by people who are not only supposed to be working alongside of you, but also have a have a little bit of pride that they have done so.
Well, fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice. All I can say is that there were plenty of new faces at the caucus, if they don't want a veto-proof DFL legislature, it's their turn. I don't think they care, and I don't really care either. The DFL have only done what they wanted to do, and nothing is going to undo it. May as well accept a few more taxes each session and just live with it.
I'll help the GOP heros like Senator Coleman and McCain, but otherwise, I'm pretty much through caring. If conservatives are going to take back the House, they'll have to do it on their own.
To start another on-topic thread, the response to this question is, if Pawlenty is not the best governor MN have had, say, dropped to #2, who now takes first place? Ventura? Carlson? Perpich? Who would they feel is back to the best place?
Although, I thought Carlson was a self-described moderate.