Coleman offered the comment outside a Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) luncheon in Washington, D.C., where Pawlenty was the featured speaker Wednesday. The RJC employed Coleman as a consultant this year during his legal challenge to Sen. Al Franken’s narrow 2008 election victory.

Coleman is “Pawlenty’s main man in the Jewish community,” reported the New York Jewish Week this week. In Coleman’s own words from that story, the governor has qualities as a thinker and uniter that are lacking in the GOP:

He is thoughtful and smart, he understands that our party has to unite and reach out rather than divide.  He knows how to get things done. The qualities he has I wish more in our party had.

A “Pawlenty for President” sign in Coleman’s lawn would be a new milestone in a storied political relationship between the two Republicans.

The Star Tribune’s report on Wednesday’s event, which was closed to the press (but exposed to Twitterers), includes this account of the two men’s intertwined political careers:

Coleman’s ambitions have sometimes intersected with Pawlenty’s over the years, most notably in 2001, when both men intended to run for Senate and the White House asked Pawlenty to bow out to clear a path for Coleman.

That doesn’t quite gibe with a more nuanced version Pawlenty offered last year in response to a national magazine story. The New Republic had Pawlenty soliciting a call from Bush Administration higher-ups (Vice President Dick Cheney, as it turned out) to add a patina of dignity to his retreat to the governor’s race in 2001. Pawlenty acknowledged he sought the call.

Photo: wdcpix.com

Karl Rove gave Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty high praise at a speech at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minn., last week: “Tim’s smart, thoughtful, thinks outside the box. He has a lot of new ideas.” But in an interview with the Washington Times over the weekend, Pawlenty tried to put one new idea — invoking states’ rights to fight federal health-care reform — back in the box.

Here’s what Pawlenty told the Washington Times about the role he sees for Tenth Amendment objections in the health-care debate:

It is important to raise the issue — not through lawsuits or threats to secede — but because doing so makes a philosophical statement and political statement for policymakers to take seriously. The federal government shouldn’t boss us around as states. It’s another example of federal government’s encroachment on markets and individual freedoms.

The newspaper said Pawlenty “sounded most of the right base notes as a Republican who is clearly eyeing his party’s 2012 presidential nomination”:

He equated abortion with murder, noted that the Earth is cooling, not warming, and said Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and the Treasury secretaries in the Bush and Obama administrations were “misguided” at best in declaring certain financial and manufacturing organizations too big to be allowed to fail.

But that isn’t good not enough for the Club for Growth, whose vice president assailed Pawlenty as “not the true believer that the conservative base is looking for.”

Elsewhere in Minnesota headlines this morning …

DULUTH: Surveyed residents circle the wagons in support of hometown. But it’s a Gallup Poll, not a “gallop poll.” [Duluth News Tribune]

MOORHEAD: Roving for student voters? Karl Rove speaks at Concordia College tonight before heading to St. Olaf College for another speech Thursday. [Morris Sun Tribune]

ST. LOUIS PARK: That new furniture smell. U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar’s anti-formaldehyde bill was inspired by a cheap, foreign-made cabinet she bought on moving to Washington, D.C. [Bemidji Pioneer]

ST. PAUL: Republicans expand complaint. Now the state GOP is fingering Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak as well as St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman for running undeclared campaigns for governor while seeking re-election to their current jobs. [Star Tribune]

ST. PAUL: Mayoral rivals set election-eve debate. That throws a wrench in Coleman’s plans to crisscross the state the night before the election. [City Hall Scoop]

ROCHESTER: More kicking and punching. This time it was an airplane, not a goose statue, that took the abuse. [Associated Press]

Video after the jump.

Pawlenty’s first comment to Hannity out of the gate was this clearly prepared line: “In Minnesota we don’t have term limits but we do have common sense and good judgment, and we’re also good about taking turns.”

There are several ways to interpret that statement. On the surface it’s simply about knowing when to quit and give someone else a chance.

But here’s another context in which to consider it. Pawlenty famously had his turn at running for the U.S. Senate taken away in 2002 when then-Vice President Dick Cheney and Bush advisor Karl Rove leaned heavily on him to switch to the governor’s race, making room for favored son Norm Coleman to run against Sen. Paul Wellstone.

So “good at taking turns” could refer to Pawlenty’s stepping aside then — and possibly taking his turn to run for U.S. Senate at the next good opportunity.

Another way to hear it: The guy who took Pawlenty’s turn in 2002 (Coleman) isn’t good at taking turns or knowing when to quit.

The former senator’s prolonged election dispute with Al Franken has put Pawlenty on the spot: It’s his job as governor to issue and sign an election certificate to the winner.

Pawlenty has vacillated on when and if he’ll do so, milking suspense from what might otherwise have been a routine (if distasteful in a partisan sense) anointing of Franken and ratcheting up his own political cachet in the process.

Still another more far-fetched read on the remark might take the turn-taking as a knock on Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who came from behind to oust runner-up Pawlenty in the GOP veepstakes last year.

She had her turn on the national ticket and should step aside as a 2012 presidential frontrunner so Pawlenty can have his chance. Minnesotans are good at taking turns — are Alaskans?

In another revelation during his Hannity appearance, Pawlenty confided that he’d spoken with others who had served three terms as governor and counseled him not to run for re-election. (He wouldn’t name them.)

Hannity pressed Pawlenty on whether he’s contemplating a presidential run. Pawlenty repeated he’s not ruling anything in or out.

Here is the video of Pawlenty on Hannity’s program:

Pawlenty, who’s in the midst of a media flurry not seen since he was in the thick of the vice-presidential slot, also appeared on local TV. In an interview with WCCO’s Pat Kessler (video), the governor wasn’t any more forthcoming about his White House hopes than he was with Hannity: “Three years out, I don’t know what I’m going to be doing.”

But T-Paw was unabashed about still dancing to Cheney’s tune. When Kessler asked about the former vice president’s statements that the country is less safe under Obama, Pawlenty had a ready reply: ”He’s worth listening to.”

[Via Minnesota Public Radio's Polinaut blog]

The highlight, though, was this cryptic exchange about President-elect Barack Obama:

NYT: Are you going to send him a little note congratulating him?
Rove: I already have. I sent it to his office. I sent him a handwritten note with funny stamps on the outside.
NYT: What kind of funny stamps?
Rove: Stamps.

That called to mind one of the more cryptic MnIndy interviews of the campaign season. It took place last month, outside a Todd Palin rally in Moorhead, Minn. Prompted by the Minnesota Independent’s Paul Demko, Moorhead resident Greg Rhodes, a McCain-Palin supporter, revealed that he’d just handed Alaska’s “first dude” some photographs. What kind of photographs?  Watch a less-than-a-minute MnIndy video clip after the jump to find out.

The Norwegian consulate in Minneapolis and the Sons of Norway, the Minneapolis-based international fraternal organization, say they aren’t aware of any interaction over the weekend between two prominent Norwegian-Americans: Walter Mondale and Karl Rove.

Rove, architect of what former Bush press secretary Scott McClellan calls the administration’s “permanent campaign,” was in Rochester, Minn., to speak at the state Republican convention. Mondale is honorary Norwegian consul at Norway’s consulate in Minneapolis.

Both men made the Sons of Norway Viking magazine’s 2004 short list of five “Notable Norwegians.” (The others: athlete Babe Didrikson Zaharis, figure skater Sonja Henie and agronomist Norman Borlaug.)

In a way, Mondale has Rove to thank for his current job. As Brian Melendez, the state DFL Party chair, pointed out, it was Rove who hand-picked Norm Coleman (over Tim Pawlenty) to be the Republicans’ candidate for the U.S. Senate six years ago. Mondale took Paul Wellstone’s place on the ballot after the late senator’s death, but lost to Coleman in the general election a week later. That made Mondale available when the new gig was offered after Norway demoted the Minneapolis consulate to “honorary” status last year.

“Take off those stupid pink gloves,” Rove recalled Bush saying.

Bachmann, of course, is no stranger to wearing pink or donning gloves for fashion’s sake. Consider the outfit she picked out for her fund-raiser with Bush just before her election in 2006. From The Star Tribune:

Clad in a pale pink suit jacket and matching knee-length skirt, Bachmann sported not only a pearl necklace, but also pink heels and pale pink wrist-length gloves with scalloped edges and a rhinestone bracelet. Asked about the gloves, Bachmann smiled broadly and said, “The president’s coming. We want to look our best.”

It doesn’t sound like Bush thought she looked “her best.”

Party chairman Ron Carey told the party’s leadership team last weekend that the planning would work to “further motivate [John McCain's supporters] to be in Rochester early” — a ploy to make sure as many delegates and alternates attend in order to prevent a possible convention takeover by Ron Paul supporters. 

“[Paul] is probably trying to get sufficient support to be able to speak at the national convention,” Duane Quam, chairman of the First Congressional District, told the Rochester Post-Bulletin on Thursday. “We’re one of the few conventions that there would be a possibility of picking up a delegate here and there.”

Also headlining will be Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla. Paul has also announced he will be speaking in Rochester at the convention.

According to Bluestem Prairie, Rep. Tim Walz, DFL-Minn., is using the appearance to as a fund-raising appeal.

“Karl Rove, the man who masterminded two Bush terms and perfected the politics of personal destruction, is coming to Rochester, MN this weekend and he is coming to campaign for my opponent,” wrote the Walz campaign. “As you know, Karl Rove put me on a list of his top 36 targets back in March 2007 – just three months into my first term. Now, with seven months until the November General Election, Rove is coming to Rochester to support my Republican opponent.”

Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo was struck by how calmly everyone took the news:

more inside

Rove has been one of the two or three central, polarizing figures of the decade — an often feared and hated figure among Democrats, at the center of most of the major political scandals of the Bush era, the architect (or so it seemed) of a Republican dominance slated to last a generation. Little more than a year ago you could find a half dozen newly-minted books on the shelves explaining the perpetual motion machine of right-wing dominance he had created. And yet today, when he resigns, I sense that no one really has much to say about it….In part this must be because Rove’s departure seems unequal to his billing. It fits no one’s expectations. He’s certainly not leaving in triumph. And, for the moment, not in handcuffs either.

Amanda Marcotte of Pandagon said that Rove didn’t deserve the “genius” reputation:

I can’t seem to find the quote on Google, but there was an article from a couple of years ago that pointed out what suddenly seemed rather obvious-Karl Rove is not smarter than the rest of us. He’s just more evil. His utter lack of sophistication is what tends to frustrate people. While most of us are out there talking about framing and polling and all that jazz, Rove spreads a rumor that his opponents like it up the butt and watches the numbers roll in. He’s simply willing to do what makes most human beings with a scrap of decency left recoil.

Digby of Hullabaloo agreed, saying that Rove was “extremely overrated, although I’m willing to admit that getting a braindead playboy like Junior elected four times to anything, much less governor and president, does take some skill. But as for his alleged tactical and strategic genius, not so much. His gift is for dirty tricks and thuggish strong arm tactics. Machiavelli and Sun Tzu he ain’t.”

Sean at MNPublius was short and to the point: “Let the church bells peal! Let exaltations be raised from every corner of the Republic!  Karl Rove is leaving the White House!”

Meanwhile, MEC at Mercury Rising was more circumspect, saying, “My first thought: Heaven help us, what’s Karl Rove going to be doing now that’s so much worse than what he’s been doing that it has to be done under the radar?”

Rook at Rook’s Rant, thought Rove’s departure was bad news for George W. Bush’s id:

Say what you will about Rove’s craven political agenda, I believe he was the damper keeping George W. Bush from going up in a blaze of egomaniacal splendor. I am more worried now then before.

However, with Rove gone, and Bush left unhandled, I suspect impeachment might now become a real possibility.

And Flash of Centrisity said that Rove shouldn’t get too comfortable:

Running away at this time should not insulate him for the shenanigans he has orchestrated in this White House. Karl may have been integral in getting this President elected, but his determination to stay in power has created a black stain on that legacy. Time tends to be the great healer, in this case, time will become the great revealer.

Jane Hamsher of Firedoglake noted that Republicans seemed to be distancing themselves from Rove, especially on the immigration issue:

Bush’s poll numbers take a hit among the lizard brains every time immigration cycles into the news, but it looks like many of the GOP 08s think the best way to rally the base is to appeal to its urge to purge. In the wake of the Bush Administration’s new regulatory assault on immigrants last Friday, it looks like Turdblossom’s grand architecture for a permament Republican majority that includes Hispanic voters may exeunt the stage along with him.

Michelle Malkin was one of the conservatives distancing herself, saying:

what I see, alas, is the mark of self-delusion and blindness that has damaged the White House and the Beltway GOP. Rove pats President Bush (and himself) on the back for the disastrous Medicare entitlement expansion and the aborted Social Security reform effort. We get this admission: “His biggest error, Mr. Rove says, was in not working soon enough to replace Republicans tainted by scandal.”…

Not a word here about the Harriet Miers debacle, the botching of the Dubai ports battle, or the undeniable stumbles in post-Iraq invasion policies. 

And not a word about the spectacular disaster of the illegal alien shamnesty, which will be the everlasting stain Rove leaves behind.

John Hinderaker of Power Line dismissed sniping at Rove as “Rove Derangement Syndrome,” and asked rhetorically, “One wonders at what point journalists will start to notice that they are making fools of themselves.”

Ed Morrissey at Captain’s Quarters noted that Rove was unlikely to latch on to another campaign this cycle:

It’s one thing to say that Scooter Libby should get a pardon, but it’s another thing entirely to hire him as an aide. The same is even more true for Karl Rove. Like it or not, fair or not, Rove has served as a lightning rod for the Bush administration for too long to risk adding him to a specific candidate now. The GOP had four election cycles in which to learn from his lessons, and one hopes that they paid attention.

Besides, Rove has better plans at the moment. He can’t write the book that will make him richer than Bill Clinton while running yet another campaign. If Radar thinks that Fred [Thompson]’s “salivating” at the prospect of hiring Rove — which is highly unlikely — then the major publishing houses in New York have to be holding buckets under their chins while mortgaging their last J. D. Salinger first-edition signed copies of Catcher in the Rye to come up with signing bonuses.

But Steve Benen of The Carpetbagger Report ultimately thinks this is all more respect than Rove deserves:

Rove’s genius has always been exaggerated to the point of comedy. In 2000, he pulled out all the stops to help Bush win the New Hampshire GOP primary, where McCain won by double digits. On Election Day 2000, it was Rove’s idea to keep his candidate in California in the waning days, instead of campaigning in key battleground states. Bush lost California by a wide margin, and Rove’s strategy practically cost his candidate the election. More recently, Rove’s single recent responsibility was overseeing the Republican Party’s 2006 election strategy – and Dems won back both chambers of Congress in a historic victory.

No, Rove’s legacy has nothing to do with his so-called strategic brilliance. His significance has everything to do with his cutthroat, win-at-all-cost style. Rove believes the political rule that there are no rules. Laws are meant to be broken. Scandals are meant to be covered up. Enemies are meant to be destroyed. The key to electoral success is to tear the country in half and see who comes out with the bigger chunk….This was Rove’s idea, and it was Rove’s job to execute the strategy. He’ll be leaving the White House in a few weeks, but his place in history is secure. That’s not a compliment.