T-Paw is really hoping for someone to ask him to the prom. He’s got the dress. He’s got the body glitter. He’s ready. Future Republican nominee, just ask him. Get him out of our state for just a while because I’m betting he’ll act like a total bitch if he doesn’t get asked. We’ve got a transportation bill to pass. Thanks!
Is Pawlenty’s plan for immigration aimed at a VP slot?
By JEAN HOPFENSPERGER, Star Tribune
Gov. Tim Pawlenty waded back into the immigration debate Monday, reaffirming his concern with an issue that is heating up his party’s presidential nomination contest and drawing complaints that his motives may be political.Pawlenty outlined measures to crack down on illegal immigration, signing an executive order to allow some Minnesota law enforcement officers to enforce federal immigration law for the first time, requiring new state employees and contractors to verify citizenship and ordering the review of millions of driver’s license photos for possible duplication.
The governor also proposed — again — to reverse the so-called sanctuary laws that prevent local police from inquiring about residents’ immigration status. He said he’d cut state aid to municipalities that refuse.
“These are reasonable steps … that can be made to stop illegal immigration,” Pawlenty said at a standing-room-only press conference at the Capitol.
But immigrant leaders said the proposals, much like those offered two years ago, seemed more designed to bolster Pawlenty’s conservative credentials than to halt illegal immigration.
“I think this has everything to do with the presidential race,” said Javier Morillo, president of SCIU Local 26. “Immigration is the one issue John McCain has been clobbered on. If the governor is, as everyone speculates, looking to be McCain’s vice president, he’ll be the guy with credibility on immigration from the Republican perspective.”
Pawlenty needs to do well as a governor before working on his presidential bid.