steele-palin-sequence2Michael Steele, the current chairman of the Republican National Committee, says he preferred Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty as the party’s nominee for vice president last year. He didn’t say who he likes for president in 2012, but Steele’s remarks, as well as Palin’s at an anti-abortion rights event last week in Indiana, suggested a Palin run. As long as Steele stays in the job (and isn’t replaced by Norm Coleman) it seems T-Paw has some persuading to do if he hopes to get the Republican Party’s official fundraising leader on his side before tangling with Sarah Barracuda in 2012.

To his Hoosier State audience, Steele recalled predicting on Fox News, just before Sen. John McCain announced his vice presidential nominee, that McCain would choose “one of two Ps: Pawlenty or Palin.” When pressed on Fox, Steele forecasted a Palin pick.

“Now I wasn’t sure,” said Steele, adding (with evident relish), “but I sure was hoping.”

Steele made his remarks to the Vanderburgh County (Ind.) Right To Life Annual Banquet last week, where both he and Palin were invited speakers.

In his own remarks (video), Steele took what may have been in part a shot at Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie (a Democrat), who oversaw the statewide hand recount that resulted in a 225-vote margin of victory for Democrat Al Franken over Republican Norm Coleman:

To Todd [Rokita, a Republican], the secretary of state: Hold down the fort, bro. You know they’re coming. That’s how they’re attacking the cause, is through the secretary of state’s office, throughout the country.

As in Palin’s speech (see video here), the bulk of Steele’s comments addressed the topic around which the event host is organized, with assertions such as “Embryonic stem cell research is just plain wrong” and “We have never had a Congress and a president so hostile to the rights of the unborn.”

Here’s a video clip of Steele’s introduction of Palin on April 16, with a transcript below:

Hello. He’s baaack. (laughter) I have the — This is going to be fun for me. I have the distinct honor of introducing your next speaker. And it is a very particular pleasure because I remember sitting, like many people were, waiting and watching and wondering.

wondering who the presidential nominee would be.

And I was on Fox that evening, the night before the big announcement. And the team I was doing the internet shot asked me, “Lt. Governor, who do you think it’s going to be?” And I said, “Well, I’ve narrowed it down to two people. It’s one of two Ps: Pawlenty or Palin.” And they said, “Really? Why?” You know, because they had all these other names. And they said, “Who do you think it’s going to be?” And I said, “I think it’s going to be Palin.”

Now I wasn’t sure — but I sure was hoping. (Applause)

And the reason had become very clear for me about eight months prior, when I had the privilege of going to her state to speak at their convention and to watch her and to spend time with her. And I had the privilege before that, as part of a cruise that I was on for some political activists (see New Yorker story here), to again see Sarah and watch Sarah do her thing. And I remember thinking to myself, as I began to understand what she had accomplished and was accomplishing as the governor of Alaska, that no one wanted to mess with this woman — that she was about her business because she believed in the honor of public service and she believed in the value of commitment to the people who entrusted her with leadership.

And so on that Saturday when she was announced as the vice presidential nominee for the Republican Party, I was one proud Republican. I was one very happy Republican.

And like so many in this room, I watched this party light up. I watched activists — Democrat, Republican and independent — tune in and pay attention and listen. And I watched her take the world stage by storm.

She’s just begun to write the chapters for this country and its history book and its future. And so I’m honored to present to you the storm that is the honorable governor of the great state of Alaska, Sarah Palin.

Palin’s travel to Indiana for the speech raised hackles in her home state — the same day, her attorney general nominee failed to gain confirmation, a historic first at the Alaska Legislature — which she acknowledged in her remarks:

They condemn anything that I do, but especially traveling outside the state to speak in another state at a function like this. Which is ironic, because these are the same critics who would love to see me outside the state forever, permanently, you know, outside the governor’s office anyway. But they had heartburn about me leaving.

Pawlenty’s own frequent travels raised eyebrows during the last legislative session and last summer when his pursuit of the vice presidential nomination was in high gear. Now Pawlenty’s political future still seems strong but remains uncertain in its specifics: Will he run for a third term as governor in 2010, seek the GOP presidential nomination in 2012, or both?

Pawlenty’s possibly dimming presidential hopes remain somewhat less publicly apparent than Palin’s, and his travel schedule — still heavy even during another contentious legislative session and a horrendous budget situation — hasn’t drawn much recent fire. (The Minnesota governor was in Los Angeles over the weekend for an education conference.)

But Pawlenty will have a chance to raise his national profile by saying something quotable (as he did last year) at the state fishing season opener on May 8.