Katiie’s Beer

I would like to have some thoughts on Governor Pawlenty. It seems everyone has an opinion on him these days. He’s even mentioned as a presidential hopeful. I’m a voting Minnesotan mom and I should have an opinion, too. Unfortunately, I haven’t been keeping up with state news. So I turn to the resources of the MOB - Minnesota Organization of Bloggers. They allow me to be a member, even though I don’t show up at Keegan’s Pub for trivia (a supposed requirement) and I don’t have an insightful post on Pawlenty at the moment. David Strom, of the Taxpayers’ League, recently posted on the governor and provided links to other posts.

A Promise is a Promise…Except if you are Governor by David Strom and Michael Wigley

Michael Wigley is CEO of Great Plains Companies and Chairman of the Taxpayers League of Minnesota
David Strom is President of the Taxpayers League of Minnesota

Much has been made recently about Governor Pawlenty’s decision to abandon his no-new-taxes pledge and propose an increase in the tobacco tax. And with good reason. For 3 years, since Pawlenty started campaigning for the job, he has insisted that “Minnesota doesn’t have a tax problem, it has a spending problem.”In fact, the very first commercial that Tim Pawlenty ran in the campaign made the promise that he was “the only candidate running who won’t raise your taxes.” Sure, Governor Pawlenty still insists that the tobacco tax increase is really a “health impact fee,” not a tax. But outside the reality-challenged bubble of the Governor’s office, nobody seems to be fooled by these verbal gymnastics. In fact, many of Pawlenty’s Republican allies at the capitol have long ago dropped the “fee” language and openly admit that this is a tax increase to balance the budget, including Senate Minority Leader Dick Day, House Tax Committee Chairman Phil Krinkie, and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jim Knoblach. Pawlenty himself says of the new tobacco tax that “Some people call it a tax, some call it a fee, I call it a solution.” It all depends upon what the meaning of “is” is, I guess. Read on…

David Strom’s blog also has links to what bloggers are saying about Governor Pawlenty’s leadership:

KvM: A long look at the brief Presidency of Tim Pawlenty
First Ring: Unfinished Obituary
Craig Westover has several great posts including this this and this.
Chad the Elder goes after Pawlenty and Hugh Hewitt in a must read…
King has a couple of good posts here and here.
Andy at Residual Forces says…
Club for Growth blog is not happy with Tim…
Scott Johnson of Powerline says…
Republican Minnesota disagrees and has a good point…
SD42 Republicans weigh in with their overall analysis of the session

Hopefully, I will soon have my own thoughts on Governor Pawlenty. I do know one thing: it’s hard to be mad at a governor who plays hockey and has a website for kids!

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