President Obama named a dozen faith leaders to the President’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships on Friday, and two of them hail from Minnesota. Leith Anderson of the National Association of Evangelicals, who is also Tim Pawlenty’s pastor, was appointed by Obama, as was fellow Minnesota Bishop Mark Hanson of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. The council, formerly known under President Bush as the Office of Faith-Based Initiatives, has had a healthy number of Minnesotans under Obama.

Anderson has been the head of the NAE since 2006, and he’s been the pastor of Wooddale Church in Eden Prairie since 1977. Pawlenty’s wife Mary has been a long-time member of Wooddale, and Tim Pawlenty joined the church after the two married in the late-1980s.

Anderson has been seen as a moderate evangelical, eager to find agreement on issues with both sides of the political aisle. In early December, the NEA released a survey outlining 18 policy positions on which Obama and evangelicals agree.

“In the current political climate, many focus their energy on fueling issues of disagreement – people of faith included,” Anderson said at the time. “But, I find it really interesting that evangelical leaders readily look for where we can agree and support.”

Obama also appointed ELCA Bishop Mark Hanson, who has been serving as the presiding bishop since 2001. He oversaw a contentious assembly meeting in Minneapolis in 2008 where the church voted to allow congregations to have gay and lesbian pastors in committed relationships.

And earlier this year, Hanson appeared in a video urging an and to anti-LGBT bullying as part of the It Gets Better campaign.

The response to his video was strong on both sides of the debate over homosexuality within Christianity.

“This is an evangelical moment given to us like none other,” Hanson said in a statement about the controversy, “because we live in a culture where most people see the Christian witness as an obsession with drawing lines in the sand and expending enormous energies defining who is on the right side of that line and who is on the rejected side. We know from the biblical witness, however, to beware of drawing lines in the sand, because Jesus is going to be standing on both sides of the line of the sand. For that, he got nailed to a cross.”

Currently serving on Obama’s faith council is Minnesotan Peg Chemberlin who is the president of the National Council of Churches and executive director of the Minnesota Council of Churches. Her term is set to expire this year.

In addition to the Minnesotans on the list, Obama also appointed the Reverend Elder Nancy L. Wilson of the Metropolitan Community Churches, a Christian denomination that sprang out of the LGBT community.

As part of it’s “Elephant in the Room” series, Pat Robertson’s Christian Broadcasting Network did a half-hour long segment on Gov. Tim Pawlenty and his presidential aspirations. CBN’s David Brody sat down with Pawlenty and wife Mary as well the Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza and Politico’s Jonathan Martin. Among the topics were Pawlenty’s connection to the evangelical community and his lack of name recognition.

Pawlenty said he’s running on a platform of repealing health care reform: “I think it’s one of the worst piece of legislation in the history of the country.”

He also talked about his faith. “If the nation turns its back on God or tries to push him out of the equation, we are going be a much poorer nation for it,” he said. “We believe in Jesus Christ. We believe what Jesus taught — not only believe in but try our very best to follow. Jesus is who he says he is, and it’s both simple but also profound.”

The Pawlentys were asked about their church whose pastor is also the president of the National Association of Evangelicals and whether that connection could help with his presidential bid.

“I can’t imagine that Leith Anderson or I would think that that’s an issue,” Mary Pawlenty said. “Our faith obviously is a part of who we are, and to the extent individuals as they hear that find they are interested learning more about who my husband is. The notion that there’s somehow access, that doesn’t even compute in my brain that way.”

Gov. Pawlenty responded, “Pastor Anderson is not someone who would or should use that for political purposes, and he’s a wonderful person and a dear leader and minster. Neither he nor that group is some sort of plug-and-play political operation. He’s in the business of saving souls. He’s not in the business of political campaigns.

CBN also polled people on the streets of Washington, D.C., to see if they recognized Pawlenty. None of the ten people on the street easily recognized Pawlenty — only one did after incorrectly guessing that he was Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.

Minnesota Republican strategist Vin Weber made the case for Pawlenty as well saying he’s the only conservative governor in Minnesota for the last 50 years.

The full half-hour interview can be viewed below:

Gov. Tim Pawlenty and First Lady Mary sat down with Pat Robertson’s 700 Club last week to discuss presidential ambitions and the family’s faith. In the interview, Pawlenty says his family is ready to take on a presidential campaign even if Pawlenty himself is still coy about his ambitions for higher office. He also talked at length about his blue-collar credentials and how he’s been successful in “perhaps the most liberal state in the country.” Asked who he would sit down to dinner with living or dead, Pawlenty picked Jesus Christ.

“We need to understand that our relationship with God is extremely important and how we order ourselves in a moral society is extremely important,” Mary Pawlenty told David Brody of the 700 Club. “It is no small matter to suggest that traditional marriage ought to be redefined. Traditional marriage is incredibly important to who we are as a society, to the family, to how we raise our children so while Tim has correctly indicated that the most important issues right now are jobs and the economy, as importantly is the focus on our families.”

On his success in Minnesota, Gov. Pawlenty said, “I’m a conservative, both fiscally conservative and socially conservative, but I’ve been successful in perhaps the most liberal state in the country.” (It’s a common talking point when Pawlenty speaks with conservatives; he used the “most liberal” designation at CPAC in February, for instance.)

Wife Mary added, “One of the things that I think Tim does particularly well is that he connects with people who are at least considering whether perhaps a more conservative candidate might be one for them, so he’s someone who connect with people who are blue collar, people who are really looking for someone whose life experience connects a bit more with theirs. And I think it’s a significant part of who he is and his upbringing and so I think he reaches a cross section of people that perhaps sometimes other candidates may not.”

“Whatever he chooses to do, however you choose to live the next years of your life, I’m with ya!” said Mary Pawlenty. Gov. Pawlenty added, It’s a whole other level if you run for national office; but, I was walking the dog with my younger daughter, I don’t know a few months ago, and she says, ‘Dad are you gonna run for president?’ And I said, ‘I don’t know, honey, I’m not sure.’ And she paused for a second and then said, ‘Well ,just don’t embarrass the family.’ OK. Well, at least we got that standard set.”

Pawlenty became an evangelical Christian in the 1980s and attends Wooddale Church in Eden Prairie whose pastor is also the president of the National Association of Evangelicals, a group that boasts a membership of 30 million.

More clips of Pawlenty’s interview can be viewed on Brody’s blog.

Mary Pawlenty said last December that she liked her husband’s word choice (he didn’t use the film character Ricky Bobby’s other descriptor, “stone cold fox”). This time, the governor and possible 2012 presidential candidate added: “Who, when they’re turning 50, doesn’t like to be called a red-hot smoking wife?”

A few other lines might’ve felt familiar to Hawkeye State Republicans as well:

On federal spending: “Watch the behavior of people at an open bar versus a cash bar. It is very different. That’s all you need to know about government. If you have an open bar, you’re going to have one set of behaviors, and we’ve got to get back — at least partially — to a cash bar.” (Used at the Minnesota State GOP Convention, April 30, 2010)

On why he believes Democrats have struggled creating jobs: “It’s pretty tough to be pro-job and anti-business. That’s like being pro-egg and anti-chicken. It doesn’t work so well.” (Used at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, D.C., Mar. 2, 2009)

Look for the Iowa Independent’s coverage of Pawlenty’s visit here tomorrow.

Elsewhere in Minnesota News this morning …

STATEWIDE: Local property taxes up 3.5 percent. That’s an estimated average; the truth comes out at Truth-in-Taxation hearings starting next week. [Associated Press]

RAMSEY COUNTY: She gets put on the Coleman-Franken recount board, the unallotment lawsuit, now the dad-shirt case. Doesn’t Judge Kathleen Gearin deserve a “Stay Out of the News Free” card?” [St. Paul Pioneer Press]

STATEWIDE: Al Franken’s bill would aid homeless kids. Bill would help them stay in the same school when possible. [ECM Publishers]

OWATONNA: Texts (both kinds) prompt race tensions. White kids and Somali kids are fighting after anti-Somali writings circulate. [Star Tribune]

MOORHEAD: Native Americans in college. They’re the focus of a national conference today.  [Associated Press]

ALBERT LEA: “Pay-to-play” charges could sink junior-league puck squad. The whistleblower is a bowling alley owner in Elkhorn, Neb. [Albert Lea Tribune]

Pawlenty’s choice of theme music, Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Fortunate Son,” deftly evoked his much-touted working-class roots with the line, “I ain’t no senator’s son.”

But considering he wants to convince people that he is the one they should pick as the GOP nominee, he could have done without the song’s repeated refrain of “It ain’t me, it ain’t me.”

Pawlenty advertised his youthfulness — relative to many other GOP presidential aspirants — by revealing his birth year (1960), saying he’ll be 49 soon.

But he dulled his youthful glow with a self-deprecating anecdote set at his “regular house” in Eagan: Pawlenty and his “red hot smoking wife” Mary are both standing in the bathroom, the governor lamenting his receding hairline and other signs of middle age — including “love handles flappin’ over the side of my belt.” Mary Pawlenty’s comment on his critical self-assessment, according to T-Paw: “There’s nothing wrong with your eyesight.”

Pawlenty’s speech offered a couple inadvertent glimpses into his status as a lame-duck state leader and not-yet presidential candidate. At one point he talked about the need to focus on “growing jobs in our state,” quickly amending that to “growing jobs in our country.” But he also admitted to having been on the road a lot, eating unhealthy junk food.

In Gov. Pawlenty’s most direct attempt to get a rise from the Iowans, he put a twist on President Obama’s call-and-response line, “Are you fired up and are you ready to go?”

First Pawlenty said Obama is trying to “take the United States to places it doesn’t want to go.” Then he offered his own version: “Are you fired up and are you ready to fight back?”

He interspersed that line with complaints like ”Are you tired of Democrats trying to ram this liberal monstrosity down our throats?” and gripes about bail-outs for Wall Street, big auto companies, and big insurance companies. But the Iowa ballroom’s response couldn’t match the roar Obama gets from crowds at packed stadiums like Target Center.

Still, Pawlenty said the frustrations Americans are feeling give Republicans “huge running room” and a “tremendous opportunity.”

He opened his keynote address to a GOP “Leadership for Iowa” event with the requisite shout-outs to state leaders. ”I don’t think [the health care reform bill] would have been delayed without you,” Pawlenty said to Iowa’s Sen. Chuck Grassley.

Pawlenty held out hope that the health care bill that he called “terrible” and “miserable” might yet meet defeat.

Within three hours, the bill had passed the U.S. House of Representatives.

Minnesota Public Radio’s Polinaut has audio. C-SPAN has video.

Photo: MN North Star

If Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s office still uses those “While You Were Out” notes, his Monday-morning stack would make interesting reading. During his weekend trip to Iraq, Pawlenty was called a GOP “star” like Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, and his name came up in speculation about which unnamed governor was reportedly also serviced by one of former New York Gov. Elliot Spitzer’s sex providers.

A hooker identified only as “Annie” told the New York Daily News that besides Spitzer (and Bernie Madoff) she counted another, unnamed governor among her customers. That led Gawker to speculate that it could be Pawlenty.

City Pages insists one detail — a “prominent” wife — nixes T-Paw from the list of possible candidates. But hey, Mary Pawlenty used to be a judge (before a brief stint at an arbitration outfit that Attorney General Lori Swanson just forced out of the arbitration business). Gov. Pawlenty also frequently deems his wife “hot,” although he once said he’d have it made “if I could only get her to have sex with me.” 

Photo: US Army

More flattering was the pronouncement by Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, himself a 2012 presidential prospect, that the Republican Party’s future lies with “stars” like Pawlenty and Jindal (not to mention Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who Barbour called “a bona fide energy expert”).

Pawlenty and Jindal haven’t been mentioned in the same breath as often since Jindal’s lackluster GOP response to President Obama’s State of the Union address. But Jindal is fixing to make his star rise again this week by blitzing op-ed pages and the cable-news talk show circuit.

Barbour made the comment at the annual meeting of the National Governors Association, which Pawlenty used to chair. This year, Pawlenty skipped the guvconfab (as well as his Friday radio show) for a trip to Iraq with three other governors.

It was planned as a morale-booster for the troops but turned solemn due to the deaths of three Minnesota National Guard military policemen – Spc. Daniel Paul Drevnick, 22, of Woodbury, Spc. David Wertish, 20, of Olivia, and Spc. Carlos E. Wilcox, 27, of Cottage Grove — just days before.

According to the Red Bull Report:

“Normally, at these town hall meetings, we talk about a lot of stuff,” said Pawlenty, “from the GI Bill to the Minnesota Vikings. But I want to limit my comments today to letting you know that I’m just so very sorry.”

When the time came for the MPs to ask questions of the governor, the room was silent for a moment. One Soldier stood up, who would ask the one and only question from the entire company. The Soldier was Staff Sgt. Blake Hayden from Woodbury, Minn., squad leader for the Military Police Company’s Quick Reaction Force and the direct supervisor of Drevnick, Wertish and Wilcox.

“Sir, are you going to be able to be at the funerals?”

The governor did not mince words with his response.

“Yes.”

Pawlenty has almost promised to travel to Puerto Rico next month as a special guest at a fundraiser for the Republican Governors Association. That’s an organization his fan Barbour now heads, after South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford resigned the post following his own sex scandal.

It was only two weeks ago that Obama reached out to Pawlenty in a weekly address that focused on the flooding along the Minnesota-North Dakota border.

Here’s the video of Pawlenty delivering the Republican response to Obama’s weekly address:

Here’s are two short audio clips of the Pawlentys on WCCO-AM radio. The second clip includes their guest, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. (Reports suggest the governor didn’t show as much interest in war crimes and other allegations against Kissinger as he did in former U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman’s legal options on Wednesday’s “The Rachel Maddow Show.”)

If Minnesota’s First Lady sounds particularly aghast at the violation of protocol a presidential bow would represent, it may be due to extenuating circumstances. “Governors’ spouses are the closest thing to royalty in state government,” said a Dec. 4, 2002 Stateline.org report that took note that then-First Lady-elect Mary Pawlenty was about to join the ranks of two other governors’ wives who also wore judges’ robes. During her 13 years on the bench, the First Lady presumably grew accustomed to all in her presence rising whenever she entered a courtroom.

She may abhor bows by heads-of-state, but Mary Pawlenty does allow herself a little bow now and then, such as the one she gave the governor as she said “I adore you” in front of the gathered luminaries at his 2007 inaugural ball. (See this TPT video clip.)

Pawlenty on Coleman:

Norm has a plausible chance, a decent chance of winning this thing.

Pawlenty on Reagan:

We need to develop new Ronald Reagans and new reference points. It would be as if Barack Obama was going around and constantly talking about Truman or LBJ. It’s just become a reference point that isn’t as relevant for young people.

Pawlenty on his own wife:

I want to acknowledge and thank my beautiful wife, Mary. She’s amazing, she’s fantastic and … she’s hot, absolutely.

The first two comments were made away from the podium, but the last was from Pawlenty’s big 20-minute CPAC speech. The insight into the First Couple’s sexual dynamics (last detailed in T-Paw’s famous 2008 fishing-opener remarks) come at the two-minute mark of this video clip:

Live Streaming by Ustream.TV

Coleman lights the Capitol menorah (Fox 9 News)

Washington state’s capitol has been beset with proliferating religious displays this holiday season — some of which are being taken as shots across the bow in the annual “War on Christmas” promoted on Fox News. “Fox and Friends” co-host and former Miss America Gretchen Carlson has been especially exercised about it, citing her Minnesota roots as she attacked a Festivus display at the Washington’s state capitol and free speech on Dec. 25 generally.

Minnesota’s own state capitol has been comparatively quiet, though a stray line in a recent TV news story caught my ear: U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman was on hand, the newscaster said, for the lighting of “the Capitol Menorah.” Wait a sec, I thought: “Capitol Menorah”? Does Minnesota state government sponsor religious displays?

A call to Jim Schwartz, who issues use permits for the capitol grounds as part of his job at the state Department of Administration, put my fears to rest. The menorah is put up by a private group and is the only religious display at the Ccpitol during the year, he said — not including, of course, the state capitol’s holiday tree, a living evergreen not far from the menorah on the grounds near the Capitol’s west wing. The tree is decorated each year by Department of Administration staff and is lit by Gov. Tim Pawlenty and First Lady Mary Pawlenty — this year the lighting took place during a Dec. 4 ceremony.

A group of rabbis from the Upper Midwest Merkos-Lubavitch House submitted the Capitol Facilities Use Request for the giant menorah on the Capitol grounds, Schwartz said, as they have for nine years now. In its application, the group wrote that the menorah is a “symbol of freedom … especially freedom of minorities from the tyranny of dictatorships,” Schwartz said. A call to the group so far hasn’t been returned. The menorah at the state capitol will remain through Dec. 29.