Former Gov. Tim Pawlenty is scheduled to headline a tea party summit in Phoenix, Ariz., from Feb. 25 to 27. The “American Policy Summit-Pathways to Liberty” is being marketed as the official two-year anniversary of the tea party movement. Pawlenty will also be headed to Nashville to speak on a panel with Arianna Huffington and Bill Kristol in March.

Pawlenty will be speaking at the tea party summit along with fellow potential presidential contenders Ron Paul and Herman Cain.

“We believe it is every citizen’s duty to defend America’s founding principles,” the summit website states. “That’s why one of the Tea Party Patriots’ goals is to gain the support of 60% of American citizens for the three core values of Fiscal Responsibility, Constitutionally Limited Government, and Free Markets.”

“This summit will be an important opportunity for Tea Party Patriots to come together to celebrate and recommit to the ideals and values that are responsible for the dramatic victories in the November election,” Jenny Beth Martin, national coordinator for Tea Party Patriots, said in a statement. “We’re delighted Gov. Pawlenty, Rep. Paul and Mr. Cain understand the importance of debating and discussing these fundamental issues.”

Event organizers have also included this welcome video:

Pawlenty will also be at Vanderbilt University in Nashville for the annual Impact Symposium, which begins March 22. Pawlenty will be talking about “Bridging the Gap: America’s Middle Class.”

The site will mix aggregation with original reporting, much of it done by freelancers, Carlson told David Weigel of the Washington Independent, sister site of the Minnesota Independent:

If there’s a story whose facts are verifiable, and it generates interest, and it comes from Satan himself, I will take it and I will pay him a reporting fee. But if we take a piece from Satan, that does not mean we’re on board with Satan’s agenda. It just means that the provenance of the piece, the origins of the piece, is not the most important thing. People don’t give you stuff because they love journalists. They give you that stuff because they’re pushing an agenda.

Pawlenty’s piece was apparently solicited especially for the website’s big splash today. Weigel writes that

Carlson and his staff are spending the final hours before the launch polishing off content that can break out of the gate — exclusive interviews, lists like the Top 15 Most Wasteful Stimulus Projects, and short features from think tankers and established politicos. Arianna Huffington will have one of the first pieces on the site.

Pawlenty appears directly below a “welcome note” by Huffington in the “Featured” column — and directly above the first installment of a diary by conservative columnist S.E. Cupp, who said last month that Pawlenty “can’t just sort of sit back and be a quiet governor much longer if he really wants to compete in 2012.”

Another post, labeled “DC Exclusive,” is decidedly T-Paw-friendly: “Massachusetts health program, model for Obama’s reform, strains state budget.” Dissing presidential rival Mitt Romney’s home state health plan was the theme of an op-ed Pawlenty wrote for the Washington Post back in August.

On the objectivity paradigm: The Star Tribune’s Bill Ward asks Arianna Huffington if “solid, impartial coverage” is a “thing of the past.” Her reply: “I think impartial coverage is coverage that is accurate, fact-based and fair. It does not mean you give equal weight to both sides of each story or issues when one of the two sides is wrong: the idea that you talk about the war and have full coverage include Richard Perle or Bill Kristol or other people who basically lied to us to get us into this war and continue lying to us to keep us from getting out, and yet these are the people that the mainstream media are looking to.” [via]

The pervasive Obama-Muslim meme: It’s not exactly a news flash, but as Wired writes, hoax emails about Barack Obama being a clandestine Muslim “still fool dumb white guys, a point made by the New York Daily News. As Cursor notes, four major papers — The Washington Times, The Los Angeles Times, Washington Post and Baltimore Sun — have recently mentioned the false Obama/Muslim link without correction.

The group had much to celebrate.  In attendance was Amy Klobuchar, Minnesota’s first woman elected to U.S. senate, Lori Swanson, the first woman elected Attorney General, and Patricia Torres Ray, the first Latina elected to Minnesota state senate.  The women were joined by a number of seconds; second female State Auditor Rebecca Otto and second female speaker of the House Margaret Anderson Keillor.

The focus of the luncheon was the key role women play in politics – both as candidate and their supporters.  In her opening remarks, MWPC President Becky Montgomery quoted Auditor-Elect Otto, who stated it was the support she received from other women that helped her win her race, defeating sitting State Auditor Patricia Anderson.  Those sentiments were echoed in the speeches of Klobuchar, Swanson, and Torres Ray.

This idea of women choosing their leaders was continued by keynote speaker Arianna Huffington. Pundit, author, and owner of the Huffington Post, called one of the world’s most influential media outlets by The Observer Magazine, Huffington stated that the cause of the Democratic tide in 2006 was that women had stopped being played by their fears of 2004. “Women are more fearless now,” she said. “Before, they voted for Bush because they though the would keep them safe.  They gave into the fear mongering.”

more inside“I said support fearlessness, not fanaticism…”

More a chat with the audience than a formal speech, Huffington’s topics ranged from her new book On Becoming Fearless, her contempt for pollsters and political consultants, her thoughts on the Presidential frontrunners for 2008, and her conversion from Republican to Democrat.

Becoming a Democrat was less about changing her stance on issues, and more about who she believed could make things happen.  “I have always been pro-choice and pro-gay rights,” she explained.  “But I used to think the private sector would step up to fix our problems with healthcare, poverty and education.  Now I know they won’t and the government needs to step in and be active.”

Despite her transformation from one side to the other, her convictions never changed, a key element in becoming fearless.  “You should always support women candidates who are fearless,” she advised. “You may not agree with every issue that she stands for, but you should support her for having the courage to stand by her convictions, which will help more women feel strong enough to do the same.”

But Huffington recognized there are some cases where fearlessness just isn’t enough.  While taking questions from the audience, one member asked whether women should still stand with a candidate if her stances were in complete opposition to yours but she quite obviously stood strong in her beliefs, not so subtly alluding to Congresswoman-elect Michele Bachmann. “I think I know who you are not naming,” Huffington replied as the audience laughed.  “And I said we should support fearlessness, not fanaticism.”

But Bachmann wasn’t the only candidate to be discussed, as Huffington also provided her prognostication on the 2008 frontrunners.  She saw Arizona Senator John McCain wrestling for the nomination against an “anti-McCain” candidate who would be against the Iraq war such as Chuck Hagel (R-Nebraska), and Senator Hillary Clinton fighting against an anti-war candidate like Barack Obama (D – Illinois) or John Edwards (D – N. Carolina).  Huffington recognized the great desire of the room for a woman president but was unsure if Clinton was the one to support.  “She has to be a hawk on the war because she fears otherwise no one will consider a woman as Commander in Chief,” Huffington said. But that position makes her unpalatable by many members of her own party, painting Clinton in a corner she may not be able to escape.

more insideFirst, the story of Congressman-elect Keith Ellison swearing on the Qu’ran has moved into the rural papers. The New Ulm Journal, the only paper in the 1st District to endorse the Republican Congresional candidate in the last election, has written an op/ed piece supporting Ellison’s right to swear by whatever is sacred to him.  And according to the new blog Forum Focus, which is dedicated to tracking the 20 Forum papers located in Minnesota, Dennis Prager’s original column attacking Ellison ran last week in the Morris Sun Tribune but none of the AP or MCclatchy wire follow-ups ever ran.

Moving out of Minnesota and on to Washington, Michele Bachmann has picked her new Chief of Staff , choosing Brooks Kochvar, the formerly the Chief of Staff for Chris Chocola, the defeated Representative from Indiana.  Congressman John Kline (R -MN 2), has been named to the transitional team for the new chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, Congressman Tom Cole of Okalahoma, a move that makes sense with the 2008 GOP convention being held in Minnesota.

And a reminder that Arianna Huffington will be in town on Friday to speak at the Minnesota Women’s Political Caucus, and tickets can be purchased until the end of the day.  We will have our interview with Ms. Huffington later this week.