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.