Pawlenty named vice chair of Republican governors group

He didn’t quite get to be vice president on the GOP ticket last year, but today Gov. Tim Pawlenty was named vice chair of the Republican Governors Association (RGA).

The announcement came this morning from Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, RGA chair, who last week named Pawlenty as one of the party’s “stars.”

Pawlenty had already been scheduled for a key speech at RGA’s annual meeting next month in Puerto Rico. This week, he’ll give what’s billed as a major address (at least for his own presidential prospects) to the Republican National Committee.

The RGA post gives T-Paw an excuse to rub shoulders with governors — and more importantly, donors — across the country. That could dovetail nicely with his need to raise a national profile for a 2012 run at the White House.

Pawlenty won’t count former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the woman who did get the GOP nod for VP last year, as an RGA member. (She resigned yesterday.)

And different from Pawlenty, she has had trouble keeping her national speaking engagements.