Cue the music

After two weeks of taking the waters somewhere, Katie promenades through the newsroom to her Throne of Opinion while humming a triumphal tune from Verdi's Aeida, delivering this. And Spot was too busy chatting with Swiftee to notice! Here's the lede:

Gov. Tim Pawlenty's recent interview with the Star Tribune, reported Saturday, has touched off a bad case of heartburn in Republican circles.

Katie tells us that the governor has strayed from the tenets of conservative orthodxy. And nothing bothers Katie more than straying from her path to grace:

Pawlenty has even adopted Hatch's signature righteous indignation. "Certain things just get me mad," the governor said in Saturday's article. Bloated government? No, oil companies and drug companies -- familiar whipping boys of the left.

Is Pawlenty trying to out-Hatch Hatch in this election year?

I'm uneasy. Pawlenty talked a lot in Saturday's article about the dangers of concentrated power.

But he said little about the greatest concentration of power we face: government. Even under Republican administrations, government has a relentless tendency to spend, regulate and expand.

But then, Katie changes her mind and really isn't worried:

In short, it's hard not to conclude that Pawlenty's recent criticism of
Big Business smacks of election-year posturing. Is it a coincidence
that by dueling with the two corporate villains he denounces -- oil
companies and drug companies -- he also appeals to important voting
constituencies: farmers, agricultural interests and senior citizens?

Katie's concern about government control is funny, of course, in light of the fact that Katie doesn't mind government control of a lot of things: reproductive rights, the right to marry a person of your choice, limiting the number of brown people in the tonier shopping venues, etc.



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