Rule number one in Republican primary politics (at least if your name is Tim Pawlenty) -- don't let a good government shutdown go to waste.
Tim Pawlenty has a new ad up in Iowa, boasting of his performance in a 2005 Minnesota government shutdown -- just as his state finds itself in the middle of a new government shutdown.
"Minnesota, gripped by one of the longest transit strikes in history," The announcer says. "Why? Because Governor Tim Pawlenty refused to cave in to government unions. Result? Pawlenty won. Minnesota government shut down. Why? Because Tim Pawlenty would not accept Democrats' massive tax-and-spending demands. Result? Pawlenty won. Tim Pawlenty -- results, not rhetoric."
23,000 state employees have been furloughed in Minnesota as a result of this latest state government shutdown, but it's okay, because Tim Pawlenty won the last time it happened! He showed those unions who's boss!
The ironic thing, of course, is that Tim Pawlenty is the former governor of Minnesota responsible for leaving the state in its current situation.
If he believes that means he "won," or that inadvertently claiming credit for the current mess in Minnesota is a good idea, then I suppose it shouldn't come as a shock that Pawlenty's campaign is currently circling the drain and barely registering at the local or national level.