Pawlenty Outdoes Ryan

Tim Pawlenty is making his bid to be bold and refreshing. Essentially, he has to win Iowa or he's out. But within the Republican punditry, he is siphoning off the anti-Romney sentiment. Romney has to win New Hampshire. Then the two can meet in the rubber match in South Carolina, which is a meld of religious right and fiscal conservatives.

Pawlenty wants to simplify the tax code and significantly reduce taxes. His individual tax rates would be two--10% and 20%. His corporate tax rate he would bring down to 15%. he would cap federal spending at 18% of GDP, a notion that Ronald Reagan's economic adviser Bruce Bartlett says in absolutely absurd. Pawlenty boasts that he will grow the economy at 5% per year--interesting concept. It's never been done in modern American times--Reagan and Clinton came close--but they did not have a global economy to contend with.

Pawlenty feels that you should eliminate any government service which you can find on the internet available from the private sector. For instance, he would eliminate the U.S. Postal Service because you can get UPS and FEDEX. Another interesting concept. Does he have to change the Constitution to do this? He would privatize Amtrak.

This approach to be bold is to offset his excruciatingly dull personality. And he continues the recent Republican tradition of blowing huge holes through the budget. Think Progress has a piece today that analyzes his budget proposal and finds that he will add another $7.8 trillion dollars to the national debt over 10 years and that's not including the random war or two. His budget numbers rival Ryan's. He comes up $8.4 trillion short and that doesn't factor in his support of Vouchercare and what that would do to the deficit.

But at least Pawlenty is not a Mormon. The latest Quinnipiac poll contradicts the Washington Post poll showing Romney would top Obama. But more importantly it examines the issue of voter attitudes toward various possible candidates--women, African-Americans, evangelicals, Catholics, Jews and Mormons. Mormons have a 32% unfavorable rating and exhibit the highest resistance from the average voter. This will affect both Romney and Huntsman.

Americans For Life--an anti-abortion group--has started its attack on Romney for his past pro-choice position and the smoking gun in Romneycare. Unlike Obamacare, Romneycare does cover abortion services.

The Club of Greed--Growth--has issued its white paper criticizing Romney for raising taxes, Romneycare and a whole host of things he did in Massachusets. But they conclude with a lukewarm acceptance of him as compared to Obama.

The Newt and his lovely bridge Callista went off on a cruise of the Greek Islands. But once called out on it, he flew back and hightailed it to New Hampshire.

Sarah Palin is travelling to the southern Sudan this summer and will pass through London. She expressed an interest to meet Margaret Thatcher. The Iron Lady through her spokesperson said there would be no meeting because Lady Thatcher thinks Sister Sarah is nuts.

Also not taking Sister Sarah seriously is veteran Republican operative Ed Rollins. Rollins made the shot acaross Palin's bow as he signed on to become Michelle Bachmann's campaign manager. You'll recall that Rollins was on deck to become Huckabee's manager if Governor Mike had thrown his hat in the ring. Now we have a cat fight between Sister Sarah and Michelle. The Freepers are outraged at Rollins' statements and heavily side with Palin.

Never let a bad idea go to waste. Yes, House Republicans are now floating the idea once again to privatize Social Security. You will recall the big dud this was when George W floated this. He called not privatizing social security his greatest reget of his presidency. The need obviously is urgent--Social Security really could go broke in 75 years. And then again maybe not.

I think it's great Republicans are embracing bipartisanship. Look at Wisconsin--the Republicans are running fake Democrats in the recall elections and are proud of it. They have found fake Democrats to run against real ones in the race with our old favorite Randy the Randy Hopper of Fond du Lac and Luther Olson of Ripon. Wisconsin reveals a stark picture that is replicated throughout the states like Ohio and Florida that elected radical Right Governors. Scott Walker has an 87% approval rating from Republicans and only 9% from Democrats. This is as polarized as polarized gets.

The Koch-funded Americans for Prosperity (AFP) keeps it classy by tacking on Eviction botices on homes in the Delaney Street area of Detroit. This was a protest against Michigan's NITC bridge project, which is in competition to a local Michigan family who wants to build a bridge expension without state funds. Of course, residents panicked and the fake Eviction notices created an uproar.