Pawlenty campaign edits out ‘pantsing’ incident

When the Des Moine Register published a profile of former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty Thursday, the campaign liked it enough to send a sanitized version — with all criticism of the candidate and an account of an embarrassing ”pantsing” incident of a legislative colleague removed — to media as an email blast.

That selective editing drew complaints from the Des Moine Register Friday, which said the Pawlenty campaign “distorted” and “excessively used” the newspaper’s content without permission. The email removed references to state budget problems, Pawlenty’s use of unallotment and his support for a tobacco fee.

The “pantsing” incident, reported in the Friday profile by the Des Moines Register, was also removed.

Then-House Speaker Steve Sviggum stood at the plate during Minnesota’s annual House-Senate softball game a decade ago when Tim Pawlenty, then a suburban legislator, sneaked up and yanked down his pants.

“There’s press all around, all these senators are all around, and I’m standing there with my softball pants around my knees,” said Sviggum, a close friend of Pawlenty. “Luckily I was wearing some shorts.”

Pawlenty’s spokesman Alex Conant told the Register that the email blast was intended to only include excerpts with a link to the full story, although the excerpts in the email included 20 paragraphs. Conant also said the campaign sent out a revised email with just the link, although the Minnesota Independent, which is on the media list, didn’t receive the revised email.