Pawlenty to go ahead with health care reform lawsuit

Gov. Tim Pawlenty appeared on Fox News on Friday evening to talk about adding Minnesota to the lawsuit over health care reform that Republican governors and attorneys general have announced in recent weeks. He said he was grateful that Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson gave him room to bring the suit and that the lawsuit does indeed have “political overtones” after being prompted by host Greta Van Susteren.

VAN SUSTEREN: But it doesn’t sort of escape me that the people who have filed are all Republicans, with the sole exception of the attorney general in Louisiana is a Democrat. I think he’s probably the only — is he the only Democrat who has joined this?

PAWLENTY: As far as I know. You know, of course, there’s probably some political overtones to it, but I think it’s also, frankly, Greta, philosophical. We have a group of people like me who view the federal government should have a limited role. There’s a bunch of people who have a different view. And that’s what the courts are for, to hash out these differences. So let’s get it on.

Van Susteren also asked how long it would take for Minnesota to join the lawsuit:

PAWLENTY: Fairly soon. You know, this lawsuit’s going to take a while, so we don’t have to do it immediately. But we’ll be making some decisions and taking some actions probably within the next week or two, at least make the initial steps in that regard.

But you know, she — she, unfortunately, decided not to sue on behalf of the state of Minnesota. In fact, she’s going to side with President Obama in this. I’m going to take the other side. That’s the way the chips fall. But at least she gave me the authority, and I needed that under Minnesota law to initiate my own action or to file an amicus brief.

Here‘s the full exchange: