pawlenty croppedIf U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) was looking for someone to sing in ABBA-like harmony on his idea that health care reform will be President Obama’s “Waterloo,” Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty may be his man. 

Pawlenty delivered what appears to have been his stock summer speech for Republican groups Friday to a GOPAC gathering in Chicago — replete with familiar gags like Chris Matthews’ “man crush” on Obama.

But as Politico heard it anyway, those lines amounted to Pawlenty linking a GOP resurgence to the failure of the current health care reform effort:

Minnesota GOP Gov. Tim Pawlenty took an aggressive line against President Barack Obama’s proposed healthcare overhaul Friday and insisted that a rejection of the Democratic plan could usher in a Republican resurgence.

Politico’s Andy Barr seems to base his take (under the headline “Tim Pawlenty foresees GOP surge if health plan is rejected”) on a couple separate T-Paw quotes, one about Obama changing the political climate in Republicans’ favor, and another questioning federal involvement in healthcare.

But it may not matter exactly what Pawlenty said or meant if people think the likely 2012 presidential candidate was echoing DeMint’s infamous statement on the benefits of an Obama health care failure for the GOP.

DeMint (audio):

If we’re able to stop Obama on [health care reform], it will be his Waterloo. It will break him and we will show that we can, along with the American people, begin to push those freedom solutions that work in every area of our society.

In contrast, Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) won’t be fitted for ABBA-style sequins and spandex anytime soon if he keeps up the kind of talk he offered last month:

If we don’t do something on health-care reform, the voters are more apt to blame Republicans than Democrats. … So it seems to me that we have a responsibility to the Republican Party not to be seen as destroying or at least not talking about things that people believe are wrong with the present health-care system.