mary-pawlenty-bows-to-tim-pawlenty-stillIn the Republican response to President Obama’s weekly address today, Gov. Tim Pawlenty regurgitates the right-wing Tax Foundation’s discredited “Tax Freedom Day” calculation to claim that ”the average American has to work from January 1st until this Monday, April 13th, just to earn enough money to pay all their taxes for the year.” It’s as deep a nod to conservative, tea-bagging tax protesters as the bow that T-Paw and his wife, Mary, accused Obama of making to Saudi King Abdullah during a local radio program they hosted Friday. Video and audio clips after the jump.

It was only two weeks ago that Obama reached out to Pawlenty in a weekly address that focused on the flooding along the Minnesota-North Dakota border.

Here’s the video of Pawlenty delivering the Republican response to Obama’s weekly address:

Here’s are two short audio clips of the Pawlentys on WCCO-AM radio. The second clip includes their guest, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. (Reports suggest the governor didn’t show as much interest in war crimes and other allegations against Kissinger as he did in former U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman’s legal options on Wednesday’s “The Rachel Maddow Show.”)

If Minnesota’s First Lady sounds particularly aghast at the violation of protocol a presidential bow would represent, it may be due to extenuating circumstances. “Governors’ spouses are the closest thing to royalty in state government,” said a Dec. 4, 2002 Stateline.org report that took note that then-First Lady-elect Mary Pawlenty was about to join the ranks of two other governors’ wives who also wore judges’ robes. During her 13 years on the bench, the First Lady presumably grew accustomed to all in her presence rising whenever she entered a courtroom.

She may abhor bows by heads-of-state, but Mary Pawlenty does allow herself a little bow now and then, such as the one she gave the governor as she said “I adore you” in front of the gathered luminaries at his 2007 inaugural ball. (See this TPT video clip.)