Sebastien Zwez

President Hamid Karzai and Gov. Tim Pawlenty. Photo: Sebastien Zwez

No, it wasn’t the Grammys, but for public figures like Gov. Tim Pawlenty hard at work building up political prestige, going to Munich for a big international security conference beat partying in Los Angeles with Coldplay and Li’l Wayne.

Still, from afar it could seem the same-old, same-old: another year, another Minnesota budget crisis, another road trip for Pawlenty. At least he made the most of it, scoring a second-row seat for the address by Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

Were thoughts of home running through Pawlenty’s mind as he heard Karzai talk about Afghanistan’s “potential for economic growth” and how his country is now able “to deliver essential services, such as health and education, on a scale that we never could in the past”?

 

    

Photo:
Photo: Sebastien Zwez

From the looks of it, there were a few front row seats available, but Pawlenty didn’t need to push it, since he’d met Karzai before on a trip to Afghanistan. It was Pawlenty’s second year at the international security conference in Munich. U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar was also invited this year, but she stayed in Washington, D.C., instead for the Senate’s weekend session on the economic stimulus bill, which she supports. A vote is expected today.

Canceling her trip may have spared the Munich conference an international incident: German Chancellor Angela Merkel wore a red blazer bearing a striking similarity to the trademark attire Klobuchar likes to don for high-visibility events (last seen at the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Atty. Gen. Eric Holder’s appointment).

Merkel at Munich

Merkel at Munich (Photo: Sebastian Zwez), Klobuchar in Senate (Photo: U.S. Senate)

Meanwhile, back in Minnesota, Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak wouldn’t deny he has his sights set on Pawlenty’s office in 2010, even as he launched his effort to get re-elected to his current post this year. Rybak kicked off his campaign at an event that featured a man whose current political status is even more muddled: Al Franken, who almost 100 days after the Nov. 4 election has taken to calling himself “Senator-Elect” but remains months away from actually attaining that office.

“I am the senator-elect,” Franken told the cheering crowd at Riverview Theater, “and hope to be seated during R.T.’s current term.”

An irony: Franken might be a seated U.S. senator today had a man whom Rybak helped attain high office — President Barack Obama — done for Franken’s campaign what Franken did for Rybak’s on Saturday.

Here is a video of Franken’s appearance, via MNStories contibutor wr3n: