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About a month ago, former Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R) was a national co-chair of Mitt Romney's presidential campaign, a high-profile surrogate, and a possible vice presidential nominee. As of this morning, Pawlenty has a very different kind of role in politics.
Tim Pawlenty, the former governor of Minnesota, is resigning as a national co-chairman of Mitt Romney's presidential campaign to take a job in Washington as a top lobbyist for a group representing banks and financial companies.
Mr. Palwenty's new role as President and C.E.O. of the Financial Services Roundtable was announced by the organization Thursday morning. In a statement, the group said that Mr. Pawlenty will step down from his role at Mr. Romney's campaign because the organization is bipartisan.
This really won't help with the "fleeing a sinking ship" talk. Indeed, it's been widely assumed that Pawlenty would be rewarded with a prominent role in a Romney administration if the Republican won in November. Perhaps Pawlenty no longer sees that as likely?
Indeed, the timing of the announcement seems especially odd -- Election Day is 47 days away. By resigning from Team Romney today, it gives the impression that Pawlenty couldn't wait to get away.
For that matter, it doesn't help Romney's larger image problems to have one of his closest political allies quit his campaign to begin lobbying for banks.





Just another golden parachute for a failed politician.
Dude... what the @!$%# are you talking about? Clearly you have no idea what a golden parachute is or have any clue what happened during the Pawlenty gubernatorial years.
OWS was right on the money. Our "elites" have been and are cashing out anyway they can, at the expense of the rest of us. This has been going on for decades and each year there is less left.
Yeah - as much as I generally prefer the Democratic side of the aisle these days, and feel they're likely to do a much better job of governance overall, when this lobbying group says they're "bipartisan", sadly, I believe them.
Vulture/Voucher 2012
Proving Two Rights DO Make a Wrong!
;-)
Wants desperately to get away from the stank...hmmmm 2016?
Hahahahahaha! Sorry, I couldn't resist.
Don't fret, should Robme win, TPaw will get a "Cabinet" position - or possibly Fed Chair.
I'm laughing right along with you, Miss Zora...my first reaction to the headline. Too damn funny for words. These people have NO shame!
And some people used to think of Pawlenty as the nice one. Hi your Ladyship I was wondering where you've been lately. Good to see you're still around. :-)
NOPE!
Get Enraged and Engaged:
Mooch the Vote 2012!
Even the rats no when to jump ship LOL.
I hear Congratulations are in order for The Maddow Show outperforming Bill O'Reilly at FOX in viewer figures at the start of this week :) Maybe even the Repub's are switching over to get solid facts and real news.
Bill O'Reilly
I doubt it. I think it's just that more people are discovering TRMS, because it appeals to a broader audience, people interested in factual analysis rather than ideological rants. It just took a while for the word to get out.
It may be too late to jump ship when it is named "Titanic."
Romney's ship is named "Problematic."
The funeral music begins, the death march is on, the end is nigh for Mitt Romney. What mainstream Republican hasn't cut their losses and ditched Mitt in the middle of his free fall to irrelevancy? Pawlenty is a smart man to hitch his wagon to Wall Street and their billion-dollar lobying campaign. With the Dow nearly doubling under Obama's first term, who knows how high it can go in another four years? - PP
At this point, I would not be at all surprised to see an announcement informing us that Ryan has left the ticket to pursue more lucrative Wienermobile prospects.
I hope there are more to come. Maybe now the die-hard Repucks will have to acknowledge that their racism isn't going to pan out for them. The truth prevails and President Obama will have another term. Bill Clinton said that no President could have fixed the mess in four years that Bush left him with. I am from Berlin, Germany. After the reunification the government told the people it will take five years to bail the former East Germany out, pay your 5% reunification tax and it will all be well. That did not happen, and some wise person explained to German people that the wall was up for nearly 30 years and that is how long it will take to really unify Germany. Give President Obama a chance. His heart is in the right place and HE truely cares about the real people of the United States.
This does not surprise me, it was just a matter of time. Smart man to get out now, rats jumping overboard
I hope everyone is standing back so they won't be trampled in the stampede of former Romney staffers rushing
over this cliffaway from this disastrous presidential campaign farce.I expect we will see (or maybe not actually see) quite a change in allocation of Republican funding.
1. Money for the presidential campaign will be "adjusted" (drastically reduced) to a Romney-version of beer money to be spent between now and 6 November.
2. Downticket Republican contenders for House and Senate seats will see their campaign funding exponentially increased as the Republicans try to
stealwin additional, critical seats so they can blockade every move of the Democratic President even more devastatingly than they have in the last couple of years.3. State and local Republican judges and politicians who are currently actively engaged in a blatant assortment of voter suppression tactics will suddenly find their campaign funding automagically increased.
4. I expect very expensive funding for a very large stable of lawyers and/or groups of "concerned citizens" who are being retained, recruited and instructed to challenge as many votes as possible both during and after 6 November in an attempt to delay, intimidate, deflect, frighten, alter or just plain destroy as many votes as possible so the election can be stolen by any means they think they can get away with.
The more I see of this year's Republican campaign, the more pessimistic I become for the future of the United States.
There must be dissension among the ranks at Camp Romney. You can't have all the foul-ups and missteps we have seen in the campaign remain unnoticed. Look for more in the coming days and weeks.
Wow, that oughta tell you something right there...who's your Daddy? Romney, Ryan and the rest of the GOP better get a headstart and begin filling out their applications too. Do they actually think the Banks are going to bail them out?
Personally, I'm not surprised.
After all, the republican party IS the party of "every man for themselves". They should be congratulating Mr. Pawlenty for upholding this principle.
" I always tried to turn every disaster into an opportunity."
John D. Rockefeller
My Grandmother wore Mrs. Rockefellers' used maternity clothes, her hand-me-downs. My Mom wore her childrens' hand-me -downs.
He was known as the one of the founders of modern philanthropy. I watched Morning Joe this AM. Time magazine had Clinton and all his accomplishments and on-going ventures 12 years after his presidency. When asked what they thought Romneys contributions would be 12 years later, there was dead silence. When someone finally spoke, they said they had no idea. John D may have been called a robber baron but he spent the last 40 years of his life putting money where it helped millions of people.
I think he's leaving Romneys side and go to Washington so he's in the door to keep Dems from "interfering" with the big financiall institutions and big banks. They dont want to be watched so closely or regulated. They want to protect there money, they're getting ready for a showdown, everyone keep your eyes and ears open.
It doesn't surprise me Tim Pawlenty jump ship, he's pretty smart and he knows what's in the tea leafs, Tea Leafs, Tea Party get it Lol
Another politician becoming a lobbyist, what a suprise.
I wish that the veterans, seniors, and the real middle class of the present that has two working adults earning decent wages, which really puts the middle class at closer to a combined family income of $140,000 realize how out of touch all the politicians are and concentrate more on Congress. Nothing can be done by any President facing a Congress of NO! I am all three of the people I mentioned in my first sentence, and we the tax paying 99% need to take back Congress and the keep our President. Do you realize that a Congressman who serves one 2 year term gets a pension of $194,000 per year for life and has the gumption to suppress the middle class, because they aren't themselves. They go home and screw the Veterans Jobs bill. Vote them out like you voted them in back in 2010!
Awkward, anyone?
The timing is too funny - you couldn't write this in a script.
I have no comment. The action itself is self explanatory.
Conservatives will begin bailing out on Romney like they did on Iraq before the Surge. The party of personal responsibility will leave it to Romney to crash and burn, but the problem with the GOP is the conservative wing and until that gets replace by adult leadership, it will continue to slide into the abyss. Rush Limbaugh is exactly correct: this election will be the end of conservativism
What's the difference?
Every last one of these creatures needs to be hunted to extinction.
Maybe this is his consolation prize courtesy of Romney.