Pawlenty Of Reasons To Worry

Steve Benen notes Minnesota's GOP Gov. Tim Pawlenty is taking a page from the Mitt Romney playbook.

Minnesota Republican Tim Pawlenty urged fellow governors on Thursday to more frequently assert state sovereignty over the federal government and suggested that the country may increasingly see states suing the federal government.

Asked by a caller about the option of asserting the Tenth Amendment as a tactic to reject a successful health care overhaul by President Barack Obama during a tele-town hall organized by the Republican Governors Association, Pawlenty said, "that's a possibility."

Speaking generally about the tenth amendment, Pawlenty said the country has not had "a proper federalism debate since Ronald Reagan raised the issue in the 1980s."

"You're starting to see more governors, me and governor [Rick] Perry from Texas, speaking out on this and asserting our tenth amendment rights," Pawlenty said on a call listened to by more than 12,000 people.

Nice. As I've noted before in Arizona and Texas, more and more GOP governors are turning into "Tenthers", falling back on the 10th Amendment as giving state executives the power to nullify any health care reforms or any federal programs that they simply don't like. The GOP really, really wants to have this fight, especially based off the Town Hall Blitz model. They want the Federal government so emasculated that it can't interfere with state Republicans passing their own laws on immigration, health care, abortions, taxes, etc.

Of course, this wasn't a problem until a black Democratic POTUS came along, but hey. And I love how all of these guys line up to brag how well they're bringing home stimulus money from the Feds too, and will never touch Medicare or Medicaid.

Pawlenty's pandering comes just a week after he criticized President Obama's speech encouraging kids to do well in school. The governor argued, out loud, that the White House might have been trying to compile a list of children "for the purpose of a mailing list." It's likely he knew this was moronic, but Pawlenty has some Tea Baggers to impress, and some right-wing ground to make up.

But this ridiculous "Tenther" rhetoric is even more radical. As Ian Millhiser recently explained, "[C]nservatives are increasingly enraptured with tentherism, which claims that landmark federal programs such as Medicare, Social Security, the VA health system and the G.I. Bill are violations of the 10th Amendment -- and many leading conservative officials are determined to impose the tentherism on the country. Rep. Michelle Bachmann (R-MN) is a tenther, as are Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) and Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC)."

Tim Pawlenty probably realizes this is insane, but his ambitions have overridden his judgment.

Sad, too.