The interview, a Q&A with Newsweek’s Howard Fineman, finds the governor in a frank mood. Pawlenty waxes realistic about the political landscape:

We’ve gotten our butts kicked in 2006 and 2008. And I think for good reason. You can’t say you are going to be fiscally disciplined and then go to Washington and spend like crazy. You can’t say, “We are against corruption and bad behavior,” and then engage in corruption and bad behavior! I mean, people aren’t stupid.

Creationism comes up:

NEWSWEEK: In her book, Palin claims that McCain’s handlers wanted her to be silent about her belief in creationism. How would you describe your view?

PAWLENTY: I can tell you how we handle it in Minnesota. We leave it to the local school districts. We don’t mandate a curriculum or an approach. We allow for something called “intelligent design” to be discussed as a comparative theory. It doesn’t have to be in science class.

NEWSWEEK: Where are you personally?

PAWLENTY: Well, you know I’m an evangelical Christian. I believe that God created everything and that he is who he says he was. The Bible says that he created man and woman; it doesn’t say that he created an amoeba and then they evolved into man and woman. But there are a lot of theologians who say that the ideas of evolution and creationism aren’t necessarily inconsistent; that he could have “created” human beings over time.

[Via Polinaut]

Presumably Pawlenty knows this (since he recommends Google to reporters), but “Freedom First” is also a suburban Washington, D.C. credit union with dibs on the web address “freedomfirst.com.”

“Freedom First” is also the name of a political group in Colorado that believes “the most powerful and ruthless Conspiracy in the history of mankind has a grip on world affairs and is seeking rapidly to eliminate the last bastions of potential resistance to its world hegemony.”

And “Freedom First” has already been taken as the name of a political committee in Florida, where one Republican state senator used it to help a colleague named “John Thrasher” thrash his opponents in a special election on Tuesday — the same day news of Pawlenty’s PAC went public.

UPDATE: MnIndy reader blueJ (see comments, below) adds that the National Rifle Association is another organization that got to “Freedom First” first.

Other less politically hospitable associations include a political ad titled “Freedom First” by Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Tester of Montana (about his opposition on privacy grounds to the Patriot Act), and a group called “First Freedom First” that fights to maintain a separation between church and state.

For some, “Freedom First” brings to mind the presidential campaign slogan of U.S. Sen. John McCain: “Country First.” Pawlenty was a big part of that campaign, right up until he wasn’t, so the slogan may have bored its way into his subconscious then.

(Pawlenty’s PAC name sent MnIndy commenter Minnesota Central down memory lane: “Ah, I remember the days of ‘Country First’ … but now it’s States Rights … it must mean that individual freedoms are more important than our collective good.”)

Politics in Minnesota had a field day with “Freedom First,” starting with Sarah Janacek mostly lauding the name as a welcome departure from the identity politics of Huck PAC and Sarah PAC (committees for GOP presidential rivals Mike Huckabee and Sarah Palin, respectively).

Then Bill Clements noted that 39 PACs already include the word “freedom” in their names, making it such a favorite that, he wrote, “I’m not sure using ‘freedom’ in a PAC name means anything at all, really. Except maybe, as songwriter Kris Kristofferson puts it, ‘freedom’ really is just another word for nothin’ left to lose.”

There are even more PACs with “first” in their names: by OpenSecret.com’s count, 132. They’re mostly banks (including the unfortunately named “Bankers First Federal Savings and Loan”), but there are also PACs named “America First,” “Texas First” and “South Dakota First.”

Huh: “Minnesota First.” Now that would have been a really terrible name for Pawlenty’s new PAC.

Kline gave the GOP response to President Obama’s weekly address, reaching a bit for Labor Day relevance by tying fears about health care reform to fears about job losses. (Gov. Pawlenty had his turn delivering the Republican message last April before another holiday — Tax Day.)

It’s a new role for Kline, a strong, silent type whose conservative credentials helped him leapfrog more senior Republicans in June to become the ranking member on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee.

Now he’s the GOP’s official point man attacking Democrats’ efforts to reform health care — though he’s outdone almost daily by his colleague in Minnesota’s Congressional delegation: Michele Bachmann.

She held a townhall on the topic; he won’t. But the man who once carried the suitcase containing the presidential Denny’s-style menu for nuclear war told a telephone townhall meeting that Senate Democrats passing health care reform by simple majority would be “the nuclear option, because it would cause the Senate to explode.”

The video of Kline’s Republican address is below. Here are the main themes:

Be very afraid

American families are worried … If you think that’s frightening, I’m sorry to say it could get even worse … No wonder Americans are scared … They also fear, and rightly so …

Au revoir, doc

What will happen to my coverage, and my choice of doctors? … the comfort of a familiar physician … Democrats’ plans may cost patients the right to see their family doctor …

Did I mention the re-set button?

It’s time to press the ‘reset’ button … It’s not too late to start over … honor American workers by hitting the ‘reset’ button on health care reform …

Bloomberg News got the buzz going by drawing out Pawlenty on a potential presdential candidacy. “I would consider that,” he said.

But only if his message finds an audience, T-Paw told the Star Tribune, and even then he’d ask, “Do they want me to be the one to advance it?”

Pawlenty regained his equivocal footing with Minnesota Public Radio (“I just don’t know the answer“). That left the New York Times to say it for him: “He wants to run for president in 2012.”

Folks, this is not rocket science. It’s not even political science. We went through this last year with his bid to be the GOP’s vice presidential candidate, and it all came down to basic barbering: When Pawlenty is running for something, he loses the mullet. If the heat’s off, he grows it back.

In mid-August, speaking at a low-profile business conference in suburban St. Paul, T-Paw was letting it all hang out.

By the end of the month, when the interviews on which the presidential speculation was based took place, the party in back was over.

Here’s the part of Pawlenty’s interview with Bloomberg’s Alan Hunt that started it all last week:

AH: Governor, as you know, a lot of speculation: Will Pawlenty run in 2012? My dear friend and colleague Tim Russert used to say, you know, politicians are a lot better off if they’re candid rather than coy. Why not just say, rather then go through this, “Geez, I want to serve out my term” — why not just say, “Yeah, I’m really interested in it, and I may do it”?

TP: Because I don’t know. I’m not being cute or coy with you. My thought is, I’m going to I’m going to finish out my term as governor, both here in Minnesota and around the country, I’m going to try to speak to to how the Republican Party can and should improve. And if that gets some traction and some momentum then I would consider that and not rule it in or out. But at least consider it. But I can’ make that decision yet and won’t make that decision yet, so I’m not just being coy. I just don’t know.

Hunt’s conclusion: “The national Republicans could do worse than Pawlenty. They probably wlil.“

The Battle for America 2008: The Story of an Extraordinary Election

Today’s piece focuses on John McCain’s search for a vice presidential candidate to shake up the campaign. It offers further proof of how close Gov. Tim Pawlenty came to making the cut. According to Balz and Haynes, at the end it was down to Sarah Palin or Pawlenty. If the Alaska governor had failed to impress McCain, T-Paw would have gotten the call.

Here’s their description of Pawlenty:

Pawlenty was young and vigorous, a conservative who had grown up in a blue-collar family — his father was a truck driver — and he was anti-abortion. He had won reelection in the Democratic year of 2006 and was seen as a future leader of the GOP, an advocate of modernizing the party without abandoning its conservative principles. Though not particularly flashy, he was seen as a more than credible choice, a running mate who might keep the Upper Midwest competitive. He was the safe choice if Palin faltered.

Photo: wdcpix

The announcements by Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty came 3,100 miles and 31 days apart. But observers in Alaska and Minnesota see close ties between the two Republican governors’ stated intentions to leave office.

“Palin’s decision, I think, was forced, in part, by Pawlenty’s decision not to run for governor again,” said David Schultz, a professor of law at Hamline University in St. Paul.

Palin set heads spinning and tongues wagging with her surprise announcement on Friday that she not only won’t seek re-election to the Alaska governorship next year but that she’ll step down later this month. In Minnesota, Pawlenty made a smaller splash with his own June 2 announcement that he won’t run for a third term in 2010 — but will complete his current term.

Palin’s announcement came amid ethical complaints and publicity troubles, factors she cited in her remarks. Pawlenty’s came amid tensions over his refusal to enact taxes to balance an ailing state budget, opting instead to unilaterally “unallot” spending programs.

Both moves were widely seen as indications of interest in the 2012 Republication nomination for president. (Pawlenty was first runner-up when U.S. Sen. John McCain of Arizona picked Palin as running-mate on his 2008 presidential ticket.)

“Touring the country for name recognition and, more importantly, the need to raise a ton of money pushed Pawlenty to make his decision,” Schultz said in an email to the Minnesota Independent on Monday. “Palin, in far-off Alaska, also needs to raise money and tour — and doing that as governor in distant Alaska [is] hard. Both of their decisions are proof that running for president is a full-time, multi-year job.”

In Palin’s view, Schultz reckons, “being governor is no longer good or necessary for her presidential race. She obviously does not believe that experience or any more knowledge about government and politics will help her be a better candidate.”

But putting that calculus into practice comes at a cost, said David Noon, a University of Alaska history professor and Palin critic. “I assume no one is seriously regarding Pawlenty as a quitter, which is, I think, the only appropriate term to describe Palin at this point.”

Pawlenty’s announcement was understated and stately where Palin’s was overwrought and shaky. “Palin bolting in the weird way she did would actually be decent news for Pawlenty’s presidential hopes,” Noon said.

Those hopes could use a boost — and money. Pawlenty’s actual popularity still lags behind a high profile in Republican circles, built on more than a year of keynoting GOP events around the country and having his name bandied about for vice president.

In Noon’s view from Alaska, Pawlenty continues to be about “as uninteresting a candidate as McCain’s people seemed to think he’d be in the VP candidate’s role.”

But if he lacks her luster, he also has avoided the downside of the limelight. In what Noon describes as an Alaskan atmosphere in which “there’s all sorts of nutty rumors circulating,” the official word is that Palin was motivated to quit by the expense of fighting off ethics inquiries — as much as $500,000.

That’s a problem Pawlenty doesn’t have. Indeed, threatened lawsuits over his unallotments appear to have fizzled.

Rep. Betty McCollum

Papa John Kolstad wants someone to challenge U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum in a primary. His beef? McCollum’s failure to sign on as a co-sponsor of legislation that would create a universal, single-payer health insurance system.

The veteran political activist (and noted musician) sent out an email to associates this week imploring someone to mount a challenge from the left to the five-term incumbent. The missive was then posted on the St. Paul Issues Forum by fellow liberal activist David Shove.

“People of the Fourth District have not been strongly represented by Betty McCollum,” Kolstad’s note contends. “She has done nothing to advance a health care solution and there is clearly one to support in HF 676. The people of Minnesota and
America can wait no longer, living in the private health insurance and Big Pharma world.”

The pertinent bill was introduced by Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) and currently has 83 co-sponsors. However, only one member of Minnesota’s congressional delegation, Rep. Keith Ellison, has signed on.

“This is a disgrace for a primarily Democratic state,” says Kolstad. “It’s shameful.”

But McCollum, in particular, has drawn his ire because she’s not politically vulnerable. Last year McCollum garnered 68 percent of the vote in winning her fifth term in the heavily Democratic district.

“I don’t know what kind of problems she could possibly face by saying we have to fix this problem,” Kolstad says. “She is being so weak — and she has no excuse for being so weak.”

McCollum’s political director, Will Blauvelt, takes issue with this assessment.

“Congresswoman McCollum is committed to working with President Obama to pass meaningful health care legislation this year that controls cost, ensures quality and increases access for all Americans,” he said in a statement to MnIndy. “Efforts motivated by either ideology or profits that are intended to undermine President Obama’s health care reform agenda should be recognized as more political game playing at the expense of millions of Americans who are demanding real change.”

Kolstad has long been frustrated by the centrist tendencies of the DFL. He was the Green Party’s endorsed candidate for Minnesota Attorney General in 2006, winning two percent of the vote. But he figures a third-party candidate wouldn’t stand a chance in taking on McCollum.

“I left the Democratic party in disgust,” he says. “I felt that the DFL did not hold their own candidates accountable to their own platform. I’d vote for a DFL candidate if I felt there was one worth supporting.”

Shove believes the lack of affordable health care could be the issue to galvanize voters.

“I think if anything is going to stir Americans to get of their butts it’s going to be single payer,” he says. “Other countries would be in the streets, but not us.”

His announcement registered with broadcast and print media across the country in headline roundups and news digests, but most analysis of note came via cable TV news networks and major newspapers’ Web sites. Their focus fell on his future as a national political figure, with some sidelong glances at his role in the Al Franken-Norm Coleman struggle for Minnesota’s second U.S. Senate seat.

On MSNBC, commentator Lawrence O’Donnell called Pawlenty ” the best player [Republicans] have,” to which Pat Buchanan (himself a former candidate for the Republican presidential nomination) replied that while he’s “an attractive fellow” who is “doing the right thing” by not running for re-election, “[Alaska Gov. Sarah] Palin will wipe the floor with him” in 2012.

On CNN, anchors Wolf Blitzer and Jack Cafferty recalled Pawlenty as the 2008 VP also-ran who might have made the GOP ticket more competitive.

The Boston Globe’s Political Intelligence blog writes that a new CNN/Opinion Research poll shows T-Paw trailing badly in the early running for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination to a man who’s already a former governor: Mitt Romney of Massachusetts. Indeed, Romney’s out-of-office success as a candidate has caught Pawlenty’s eye as an example, the New York Times’ The Caucus notes.

If he takes it, Pawlenty’s road to the White House would pass through Iowa, where the Des Moines Register’s Iowa Politics Insider says he has well-placed friends and admirers from several road trips he made on behalf of Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaign.

Pawlenty’s banquet-patter about building the party with Sam’s Club Republicans may get stale by 2012, warns the National Journal’s Hotline. He’ll have a chance to start refreshing his rhetoric this weekend in Washington, D.C. There, he’ll address not only the College Republicans‘ national convention, as he mentioned Tuesday, but also a gathering sponsored by the Republican National Lawyers Association (RNLA), according to Politico,

(RNLA fundraising for Norm Coleman’s post-election efforts to regain his Senate seat prompted a DFL Party complaint to the Federal Election Commission early this year. An RNLA “Stop Al Franken from Stealing the Election” Web page, with headline altered to “Stop ACORN,” still solicits donations of $5,000 — an amount exceeding legal limits, the DFL charged in its yet-unresolved complaint.)

The Washington Post’s The Fix pushed the Franken-Coleman angle the hardest, seeing Pawlenty’s “retirement” as a potential game-changer. The theory goes that with no worries about wooing Minnesota voters hungry for a second senator, Pawlenty might actually withhold an election certificate from Franken even after the Minnesota Supreme Court rules:

So, if Coleman decides he wants to take the case to the federal level if he were to lose at the state court level, there’s now a significantly higher likelihood that Pawlenty would be receptive to such a move.

Photo: The UpTake

Gov. Tim Pawlenty was at odds with his own communications office on a couple points at his press conference yesterday — including the topic of his talk.

Here’s how Pawlenty’s communications director, Brian McClung, billed the event:

Governor Pawlenty will hold a press conference today regarding his future plans.

Never mind that the phrase “future plans” is a notorious redundancy deserving of its own line-item veto. Pawlenty played off all questions on the topic like a rock star who refuses to perform the hit that the promoter promised:

I don’t know what my plans are. I don’t have any plan …

I do not know what my future plans are. I really don’t. …

I’ll just reiterate: I. Don’t. Know. What. My. Future. Plans. Are.

Then there was the answer that the governor’s office had to scramble to take back. Two hours after Pawlenty’s press conference ended, McClung issued this statement:

At today’s press conference, Governor Pawlenty misspoke when he said that our administration considers unallotments as permanent cuts to programs.  The Governor thought he was addressing a question regarding the impacts of line-item vetoes rather than unallotments.  While line-item vetoes are counted as permanent funding reductions, an unallotment only impacts funding for that specific biennium.  The reduction does not carry forward into future years.

Politics in Minnesota’s Steve Perry, who asked the question, wonders whether Pawlenty really thought he was talking about line-item vetoes. Here’s Perry’s transcription:

PIM: Regarding the question of unallotments, I know your administration has studied closely the House Research paper on unallotments, and it points to ambiguities in the law–one of which is that it’s not clear whether unalloting a sector of the budget reduces the base budget going forward. In your view, does it reduce the base budget, or is it a temporary reduction?

Pawlenty: You’re talking about in terms of the forecast beyond the current biennium? Well, I think it’s our position and the Department of Finance’s position that that’s a permanent reduction. But I’ll defer that to the Department of Finance.

Maybe Pawlenty did mix up line-item vetoes with unallotment, lost in the emotion of a moment that some media labeled his retirement from politics (though that seems a mislabeling, and the event was, as Pawlenty reminded reporters, “not a wake”).

But this is a man who ordinarily watches his words. He rarely, for example, flings “Democrat” as a partisan pejorative in place of the more proper adjective “Democratic.” So it was surprising to hear him at the press conference deliver this line in his fed-up, scolding tone:

We need leaders and visionaries and change-agents, not whiners and defenders of the status quo.

You’d think Pawlenty would have excised the word “whiner” from his vocab list last summer, after the man he nearly joined on the national Republican ticket, Sen. John McCain, dispatched former Sen. Phil Gramm from a campaign post for making comments about a “nation of whiners.”