Hotdish Tuesday: Pawlenty, Coleman at Odds?

“My first response to that is show me the dead Canadians. Where are the dead Canadians?”

That was Gov. Tim Pawlenty back in 2003, in support of a drug re-importation plan that would save Minnesotans a large sum of money.  Pawlenty has long been a supporter of drug re-importation programs, but Republicans (and some Democrats, to be fair) in Congress have not been so friendly.

Including Minnesota Sen. Norm Coleman.  Coleman voted for an amendment from Mississippi’s Thad Cochran that effectively kills a measure that would have taken into account all the issues that have been raised, saved American consumers quite a bit of hard-earned money and provided prescription drugs at lower cost than the pharmaceutical companies want to accept.

The best part?  Because of the way Cochran’s amendment works, senators get to say they voted for the re-importation measure in the same breath as they acknowledge voting for an amendment that kills it.  They really did vote for it before they voted against it.