The Tim nobody knows...

"The question now begs to be asked - who is the real Tim? Is he the party guy who served two terms as Governor? Or is he the interloper, the carpetbagger, who has returned from the Wall Street swamp full of donor cash, ready to buy this election?"

I was listening to Rush yesterday afternoon as I was cutting my ever growing grass (again). Somehow he got on the subject of Donald Trump, and what he is doing to or with the Washington swamp. He used the Clinton's as an example of the Washington swamp. Spend some time in elected office making spit for compensation, go to work for a foundation or lobbying firm once you are done serving, then become fabulously wealthy. It happens all the time. Then I had a thought about our own Minnesota swamp. That is the same thing Tim Pawlenty has done! Using his past career path as a yardstick, TPaw is kind of like the Clinton's.

Years ago, someone told me the most important question to ask a politician is where his or her center is. Center? Basic core beliefs. The beliefs which were the same yesterday as they are today, and will be tomorrow. 

One of the complaints about the Clinton's were they had no center. And truthfully, they did not. Their views always depended on which way the political breezes were blowing. What the polls said. Did that hurt them? Na. There were so many folks who were intoxicated by the allure, the notoriety of these two charlatans, many simply did not care.

What about our Tim Pawlenty? Where is his center? Good question. Lets start with his presser yesterday. He said (and I will paraphrase just a bit), "Unlike Jeff, we don't think it should be 800 to 900 elected delegates who decide the fate of the MN Governor's office." When I heard that, I thought of Tim's "center". And there is a reason for that.

This past weekend, when Carol Molnau and I were standing next to each other handing out Jeff literature, Carole (TPaw's former running mate), reminded me of the "old Tim". Carole said that when Tim was running for his first term, "Tim was very concerned about the endorsement process, and wanted his endorsement protected." That was back when Tim believed in the representative democratic process of candidate selection. Now it is money talks and everything else walks.

I really, really don't want to go back and relive the days of Governor TPaw. He was not a bad Governor like we have now - he was just very disappointing. Color me naive, but I really thought that once Tim Pawlenty left office, he would still be around to help his former party. Instead he has decided to come back to town and run against his former party in the primary. 

The question now begs to be asked - who is the real Tim? Is he the party guy who served two terms as Governor? Or is he the interloper, the carpetbagger, who has returned from the Wall Street swamp full of donor cash, ready to buy this election? Hello Tim? Center? Where art thou?

I guess we are left with this. This is the Tim nobody truly knows. We don't know him, we don't know his center. We do however know this - for the next 60 odd days, Jeff Johnson and the party have to focus on the TPaw threat instead of a very fractured Democrat Party. And that could be very costly.

If we lose this race due to this most un-noble intrusion of Tim Pawlenty, TPaw will go down in party history. His picture will be right next to Arnie Carlson and Tom Horner. And that is not a page you want to be on.