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Stories tagged with “Tim Pawlenty”

Election

Republicans Abandon Romney in Droves After ‘Gifts’ Comments

By Hayes Brown on Nov 18, 2012 at 12:32 pm

Mitt Romney’s comments to donors about the “gifts” that President Barack Obama gave to constituents to win the election continue to cause members of his party to run away from the former candidate. Despite their insistence during the election that Romney’s position on entitlement in America was accurate, the new consensus among the GOP politicians, if not their pundits, is that Romney’s statements could not be more wrong.

After several prominent Republican governors expressed their disagreement with Romney’s statements, the hits have continued coming. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, considered at one point by the Romney campaign as a possible running mate, said on Friday, “You can’t expect to be a leader of all the people and be divisive. You have to talk about themes, policies that unite people, and play to their aspirations and their goals and their hopes for their family and their neighbors.”

Tim Pawlenty, former Minnesota governor and another potential running mate for Romney, though silent on Romney’s 47% comments, likewise shot-down Romney’s “gifts” theory.

Those who didn’t outright disagree with Romney’s words disagreed with his message. Appearing on Meet the Press on Sunday, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) stated that it wasn’t his intention to vilify those who are beneficiaries of public assistance programs:

People can be on public assistance and scheme the system and that’s real, these systems are teetering on bankruptcy. But most people on public assistance don’t have a character flaw. They just have a tough life. I want to create more jobs. The focus should be on creating more jobs, not demonize those who find themselves on hard times.

Meanwhile, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) gave an interview highlighting his issues with Romney’s belief. “I don’t want to rebut him point by point. I would just say to you, I don’t believe that we have millions and millions of people in this country that don’t want to work,” Rubio said. “I think we have millions of people in this country that are out of work and are dependent on the government because they can’t find a job.”

New Mexico governor Susana Martinez (R) and top Romney surrogate to the Hispanic community Carlos Guiterrez have also joined in the chorus disparaging Romney’s statements and calling for more inclusiveness in the Republican party. It’s unfortunate that this many Republican politicians seem to have discovered the divisiveness of their party’s policies towards minorities and the working class only after a massive loss to President Obama.

Update

Newt Gingrich also dismissed the remarks during an appearance on ABC’s This Week. “I just think it’s nuts,” he said. “I mean, first of all, it’s insulting.” “The job of a political leader in part is to understand the people. If we can’t offer a better future that is believable to more people, we’re not going to win.”

Economy

Former Romney Campaign Chairman Turned Bank Lobbyist: Banks Should Regulate Themselves

By Pat Garofalo on Sep 21, 2012 at 12:00 pm

Former Minnesota Governor and unsuccessful presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty announced yesterday that he was stepping down as co-chairman of the Romney campaign in order to take over the top spot at the Financial Services Roundtable, a lobbying group that represents the largest financial services companies in the country. Pawlenty assumed the role as a top bank lobbyist despite his tough words for Wall Street during his campaign.

As head of the FSR, one of Pawlenty’s key roles will be helping banks water down the Dodd-Frank financial reform law. And he got started during his first press conference by calling for banks to do more self-regulation, choosing “voluntarily” to stop doing “stupid things”:

In his first press conference since being named head of the Financial Services Roundtable, former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty said he would seek a “refinement” of the Dodd-Frank Act, but also added that banks need to do more to regulate themselves.

The one-time Republican presidential hopeful, who is stepping down as co-chair of Mitt Romney’s campaign, said he was asked while interviewing for the Roundtable job about how financial institutions can regain the public’s trust.

“I said, ‘Stop doing stupid things,’” Pawlenty said while sitting in the Roundtable’s Washington offices.

“These are large organizations with tens of thousands of employees in many cases. There is always going to be some individual doing something that’s off track. That’s human nature. But the obligation and the opportunity of the organizations is to put controls in place and a culture in place that minimizes the likelihood of that, but does it voluntarily.”

Of course, the anticipation that banks would self-regulate — rendering federal regulations unnecessary — was part of what caused the financial crisis in 2008. Romney has pledged to repeal the Dodd-Frank law.

Economy

Romney Co-Chair Abandons Campaign, Will Head Group Lobbying Against Wall Street Reform

By Aviva Shen on Sep 20, 2012 at 10:15 am

Former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty announced Thursday morning that he would step down as co-chair of Mitt Romney’s campaign to become the head of the Financial Services Roundtable, a trade organization that represents the 100 largest financial services companies in the country.

Pawlenty tenure will begin as the group continues to lobby against the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reforms that are starting to take effect. Among his new causes will be defeating the law’s price controls on debit card fees and the Volcker Rule, which is intended to keep banks from engaging in the risky behavior that led to the industry’s collapse in 2008. FSR has also taken aim at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the bill’s provisions for whistleblowers.

In their new partnership, FSR and the former governor seem to be ignoring Pawlenty’s inflammatory anti-bank rhetoric during his failed presidential run. In 2011, Pawlenty wholeheartedly condemned Wall Street on the campaign trail, declaring, “Get your snout out of the trough just like everybody else.” A Pawlenty presidency, he said, would not tolerate cozy relationships between banks and politicians:

We will get rid of all the deductions, credits, or exemptions, and you will compete not based on your connections to a congressman, but connections whether you can convince consumers if you have a good product. If you cannot do that, you should not be in business. Do not look for government to bail you out. You either compete and succeed in the market or you do not.

In spite of this rhetoric, Pawlenty opposed Dodd-Frank in 2010, often pushing the GOP’s false talking point that the law promoted bank bailouts. “The notion that we’re going to have privately held entities in this country that can’t go out of business, to me, is troublesome and philosophically concerning,” he said in 2010.

Romney released a statement shortly after the announcement praising Pawlenty, saying, “His new position advancing the integrity of our financial system is vital to the future of our country.”

Security

Romney Campaign Co-Chair Supports Iran War Authorization

By Ben Armbruster on Aug 30, 2012 at 4:21 pm

Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Mitt Romney campaign co-chair and former Wisconsin governor Tim Pawlenty told Foreign Policy Magazine that he would support Congress authorizing war with Iran. Elliot Abrams, a former Bush administration official and now top foreign policy adviser to GOP vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan, floated this idea last week and Pawlenty said it might be “a good idea.” “I don’t know that it would be dispositive, but it couldn’t hurt and it probably would help,” he said.

While Pawlenty did say that he wasn’t sure an attack on Iran would have great success, it’s worth noting perhaps where Abrams is coming from. Back in 2009, he took a “they’ll greet us as liberators” approach to an American attack on Iran:

We are not talking about the Americans killing civilians, bombing cities, destroying mosques, hospitals, schools. No, no, no – weʹre talking about nuclear facilities which most Iranians know very little about, have not seen, will not see, some quite well hidden.

So they wake up in the morning and find out that the United States if attacking those facilities and, presumably with some good messaging about why weʹre doing it and why we are not against the people of Iran.

Itʹs not clear to me that the reaction letʹs go to war with the Americans, but rather, perhaps, how did we get into this mess? Why did those guys, the very unpopular ayatollahs in a country 70 percent of whose population is under the age of 30, why did those old guys get us into this mess.

So Abrams thinks that if the U.S. attacks Iran, ordinary Iranians will rally around the Americans. As Matt Yglesias observed at the time: “If Iranian agents were to blow up an American military base, I don’t think the American public would just say ‘well, fair enough.’” Indeed, as former top American and Israeli officials have said, an attack on Iran is likely to “galvanize Iranian society behind the leadership and create unity around the nuclear issue” and “guarantee that which we are trying to prevent — an Iran that will spare nothing to build a nuclear weapon.”

A Romney adviser recently told the National Journal that the campaign isn’t having many conversations about a diplomatic approach to the Iranian nuclear crisis. And in his interview with Foreign Policy, Pawlenty seemed to reinforce that thinking. “Options would include concluding the negotiations are not working, that the Iranians aren’t taking them seriously, bringing them to a temporary or permanent end, and start the clock ticking on other alternatives and letting the Iranians know that,” Pawlenty said.

As for the Obama administration, it is aware, not only of the threat an Iranian nuclear weapon poses, but also the potential negative consequences of a military attack on Iran. And that, coupled with U.N., U.S. and Israeli assessments that Iran has not yet decided on whether to build a nuclear weapon, leads the administration to pursue a diplomatic solution with Iran, a track the it deems the “best and most permanent way” to solve the nuclear crisis.

Security

After Romney Calls For Zeroing Out Foreign Aid, Top Advisor Condemns Idea: ‘Directionally Not Correct’

By Scott Keyes and Adam Peck on Aug 30, 2012 at 11:00 am

Left: Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R). Right: Mitt Romney.

TAMPA, Florida — Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R), a top surrogate for Mitt Romney, laid into those in the Republican Party who wanted to get rid of foreign aid funding, calling the idea “directionally not correct.”

The only problem? At a Republican primary debate in November last year, Romney joined the call for eliminating U.S. foreign aid commitments. “[O]ne of the things we have to do with our foreign aid commitments, the ongoing foreign aid commitments, I agree with Governor Perry,” said Romney. “You start everything at zero.”

Speaking at The Tampa Club with Bill Kristol, Pawlenty criticized the “isolationist wing” of his party that is “very hostile towards foreign aid and development monies.” Noting the modest amount that America actually spends on foreign aid — it makes up less than one percent of the federal budget — Pawlenty broke with his party’s presidential candidate, calling it “important to preserve and maintain that commitment.”

PAWLENTY: First of all, my party has a wing or a portion of it that is trending towards isolationism and is trending towards being very hostile towards foreign aid and development monies. I think my personal view of that is that is directionally not correct. For the modest amount of money that is on the table — doesn’t mean it can’t be reformed and we can’t scrutinize it — but for the modest amount of money we’re talking about and the important role that it plays in terms of America’s position and role in the world, I think it’s important to preserve and maintain that commitment.

Watch it:

Others in the Republican Party are also pushing back against the call to eliminate foreign aid as well. In a speech earlier this year, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) ridiculed the proposition, calling it “outrightly foolish” and “un-Christian.”

Election

Republicans Who Criticized Obama As Foreign Policy Novice, Say Romney’s Missing Experience Is A Plus

By Annie-Rose Strasser on Aug 12, 2012 at 12:30 pm

The same Republicans who criticized President Obama for lacking foreign policy experience in 2008 are now stepping in to defend the dismal international relations record of Romney-Ryan ticket.

Former House Speaker New Gingrich (R) and former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R) on Sunday argued that Romney and Ryan are actually better equipped to lead on international relations than Obama and Biden:

GINGRICH: I think it’s an advantage that they’re not part of the current mess….Mitt Romney has the same amount of foreign policy experience as Ronald Reagan. Ronald Reagan defeated the Soviet empire decisively in 8 years. I would rather have Romney and Ryan rethinking everything than have the current team continue.

PAWLENTY: Romney and Ryan have a terrific national security policy team around them…Governor Romney spent his entire career in global business arrangements, transactions and traveling and understanding different countries, cultures and geography.

Watch it:

But both Gingrich and Pawlenty were happy, in 2008, to appear on the Sunday morning talk shows at do the opposit — attack Obama and Biden for not having the foreign policy chops they deemed necessary.

In the fall of 2008, Gingrich asked Fox News host Greta Van Susteren, “Who do you trust more to deal with the dangerous world … somebody who has read about it and sort of vaguely thought about it but hasn’t really collided head-on with it?”

Pawlenty echoed a similar line. “He basically graduated from law school, went on to be a community organizer and a law professor; went to the U.S. Senate and began running for president essentially the day he arrived,” he said of Obama on Meet The Press in 2008, “So what is it in his background, Tom, that would give him that same type of requisite wisdom and judgment and insight on national security matters or foreign affairs matters or anything else?”

NEWS FLASH

Romney Demanded ‘Several’ Years Of Tax Returns From Potential VP Candidates | Former Minnesota governor and Mitt Romney surrogate Tim Pawlenty was caught off guard when asked how many years of tax returns he had to turn over to the Republican campaign as part of the vice presidential vetting process, during an appearance on ABC’s This Week on Sunday. “Several,” Pawlenty said, careful not to reinvigorate the issue or contradict Romney’s resistance to release more than two years of returns. A top aide to Romney has admitted that the campaign received “several years” of income tax returns “from potential running mates.” Watch it:

Update

During an interview with 60 Minutes on Sunday, Ryan said he provided Romney with several years of tax returns, but will only release two years publicly.

LGBT

Anti-Gay Chick-fil-A Attracts Losers, Repels Prominent Leaders, Universities, And The Public

By Zack Ford on Jul 30, 2012 at 11:30 am

It seems telling that the political conservatives attracting media attention for coming to the defense of Chick-fil-A and its anti-gay crusades — Mike Huckabee, Rick Santorum, Sarah Palin, Tim Pawlenty — are all most recently known for having lost elections. Indeed, the anti-gay vitriol that Chick-fil-A’s president Dan Cathy has repeatedly dispensed has been a loser with the public: YouGov BrandIndex polling shows that the public’s approval of Chick-fil-A has taken a nosedive since Cathy’s interview from 65 to 39:

Meanwhile, a number of prominent leaders have continued to show their displeasure with Chick-fil-A. Here’s a sampling:

  • House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA): “For the record, I prefer Kentucky Fried Chick. #ChickFilA” (Twitter)
  • Washington, DC Mayor Vince Gray (D): “Given my longstanding strong support for LGBT rights & marriage equality, I would not support #hatechicken” (Twitter)
  • Newark, New Jersey Mayor Cory Booker (D): “Wouldn’t deny a biz a permit on those grounds BUT I’d join my residents in taking my $’s elsewhere” (Twitter)
  • Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA): “I disagree with what the CEO from Chick-fil-A said. I was glad he spoke further and said that his company does not discriminate.” (Boston.com)

To clarify Brown’s remarks, Chick-fil-A said it will “treat every person with honor, dignity and respect,” regardless of sexual orientation, but the company still has no employment protections in its official corporate policies. According to Forbes.com, there have been at least 12 lawsuits against the company since 1988 on various charges of employment discrimination.

New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn (D) wrote to the president of New York University, home to the city’s only Chick-fil-A, urging him to end the university’s relationship with the anti-gay restaurant:

NYC is a place where we celebrate diversity. We do not believe in denigrating others…As you know from recent press coverage, the President of Chick-fil-A continues to make statements and support causes that are clear messages of extreme intolerance and homophobia and a belief that LGBT Americans are less than others and deserve to be treated as such.[...]

I urge you to sever your relationship with the Chick-fil-A establishment that exists on your campus. This establishment should be replaced with an establishment where the ownership does not denigrate a portion of our population.

Another university’s leadership has already taken action against a Chick-fil-A on its campus. The president and provost at the University of Louisville released a statement saying that they “will not be eating at Chick-fil-A anytime soon.” Responding to a growing student petition, U of L administrators are currently assessing the contractual arrangements with the franchise on campus to evaluate further courses of action. At least seven other universities also have petitions underway challenging the existence of a Chick-fil-A on their campuses.

Attacking gay people as purveyors of society’s destruction is harmful to many people, and as public condemnation grows, it’s proving to be a losing philosophy for Chick-fil-A.

LGBT

Romney’s Vice Presidential Frontrunner Embraces Anti-Gay Company At Campaign Event

By Igor Volsky on Jul 28, 2012 at 1:41 pm

Top Mitt Romney surrogate and potential vice presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty came to Chick-fil-A’s defense during a Romney campaign event in Cary, North Carolina on Saturday, bragging to a small group of supporters that he ate lunch at the fast-food franchise, which refuses to offer any employment protections to LGBT employees and has donated millions of dollars to ex-gay ministries.

Activists and lawmakers from across the country are protesting the company after its president condemned homosexuality in a recent radio interview. Conservatives have responded to the backlash by holding “Chick-Fil-A Appreciation Day” in support of the company. From the event:



Pawlenty has a complicated history on gay rights. In 1993, he Pawlenty voted to extend protection to gays and lesbians under the state Human Rights Act, effectively banning discrimination in housing and employment based on sexual orientation as well as race, religion, ethnicity and physical or mental disability, but later seemed to regret his vote. In July of 2011, Pawlenty claimed that the science is still “in dispute” over whether people are born gay.

Romney has previously said that he supports equal rights in employment, although he has publicly backed away from a federal law that would prohibit businesses from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.

Related Posts

Justice

Pawlenty Walks Back Romney’s Promise To Veto The DREAM Act

By Amanda Peterson Beadle on Jun 18, 2012 at 10:30 am

Following President Obama’s announcement on Friday that immigration officials would stop deporting DREAM Act-eligible students, GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney criticized Obama for failing to pass comprehensive immigration reform, but has repeatedly refused to say if he would repeal the measure.

On Monday morning, Romney surrogate Tim Pawlenty tried to create additional breathing room for the former Massachusetts governor. During an appearance on CNN’s Starting Point, Pawlenty sought to dismiss Romney’s promise to veto DREAM, suggesting that he may ultimately sign the measure if elected president:

SOLEDAD O’BRIEN (HOST): As I’m sure you know, Mitt Romney said that if he were elected he would veto the DREAM Act, right?

PAWLENTY: There are a lot of things labeled the DREAM Act, Soledad, so we have to be careful. What Governor Romney has said is when it comes to Senator Rubio’s ideas about the DREAM Act that he would be open to that. That legislation hasn’t been put in final form yet but he said he would consider it or at least look at it. He has said in other settings and times he would be willing to allow a pathway to legal status for children no are in this situation. For example, if they serve in the military and are honorably discharged. As it relates to the issue of children and through no fault of their own are under that circumstance, he said I’m open to try to explore or consider a permanent solution and I think these a reasonable gesture on his part.

Watch it:

In reality, Romney was far more dismissive of efforts to help undocumented students during the GOP presidential primary. “For those who come here illegally, the idea of giving them in-state tuition credits or other special benefits I find to be contrary to the idea of a nation of law,” Romney told a crowd in Iowa in December and flatly promised to veto DREAM.

His views shifted in April, however, when he expressed support for the DREAM Act, saying the Republicans need to propose a GOP version of the bill and other initiatives to win support from Hispanic voters.

But given Obama’s announcement last week, that GOP alternative — which is supposedly being drafted by Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and is remarkably similar to the White House policy — may fail to materialize, leaving Romney floundering for a position on the issue.

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