Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R-MN) hasn't crossed our consciousness for a while. When last I saw him, he was putting on a brave face at the Republican National Convention.
On the day that the Senate passed a $350 billion TARP reauthorization, the House unveiled $850 billion worth of a stimulus package, Mitt Romney merely testified and Republican leaders struggled to figured out how to finesse the issue, Pawlenty did something a little different.
He used his state of the state address to propose big cuts in business taxes as a way to promote growth to close up the deficit. Now -- the wisdom of the economic policy can be debated, but the politics is pretty clear enough. People close to Pawlenty say he has not decided whether to run for national office, but they concede that he pays attention to his national profile and wants to leave the option open.
He's now going to be able to say: while Washington spent trillions, I led the way on tax cuts.
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