mittFormer Massachuetts Gov. Mitt Romney pushed back Sunday against Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s attacks on the Bay State’s health care system.Romney appeared on CNN’s “State of the Union.” Host John King baited Romney with a clip of Pawlenty slamming Massachusetts on a past edition of the same show (at about the 4:30 mark):

From CNN’s transcript:

KING: The cost of the program has been one of the questions in Massachusetts. And among the critics is a man you might see on the campaign trail should you decide to run again in 2012, the Minnesota governor, Tim Pawlenty. Listen to this. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAWLENTY: If you don’t also contain costs and preserve quality, you’re in big trouble. And the federal proposal is largely modeled so far after what happened in Massachusetts. They succeeded in extending access, but the cost of that program has now double, triple, and some would say soon to be quadruple what they originally estimated. That would be a bad development for those of us who are concerned about the uncontrollable rise in health care costs. (END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Does Governor Pawlenty have your plan right there?

ROMNEY: No, I’m afraid facts are stubborn things, and the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation has taken a good look at the Massachusetts plan some three or four years after it was passed, and it is well within the original forecast. It’s about — a little over 1 percent of the state budget. And in fact, virtually all of our citizens are insured.

Romney continued: “And by the way, if other governors can come up with something better than I did, congratulations. We’ll copy one another.”

So, not a slashing attack on T-Paw by Romney, but neither did Romney’s comments show the kind of deference either man would expect as president, were he traveling abroad as Pawlenty was over the weekend.

Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, on the other hand, who is another GOP 2012 presidential prospect, showed solidarity with Pawlenty by giving out a phone sex number instead of a state toll-free number.

Pawlenty did something similar in September, mistakenly giving out a phone sex number instead of the call-in number for his weekly WCCO-AM radio talk show.