Pawlenty Rallies Pro-Lifers With Own Record
MN Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R) has pro-life credentials, and he's showing them off: The WH'12 contender gave a socially conservative audience at Wednesday's Susan B. Anthony's List annual gala red meat by touting a law he signed in one of the bluest states in the nation in the first year of his tenure.
It's the latest example of Pawlenty's focus on his record on the stump, something unique among potential WH'12 candidates. While ex-MA Gov. Mitt Romney has distanced himself from signature health care legislation he passed while in office and ex-AR Gov. Mike Huckabee's fee increases are still unpopular with the fiscal conservative crowd, Pawlenty has embraced what he's been able to accomplish even with Dem majorities in the state legislature.
For pro-life GOPers attending the Susan B. Anthony dinner, devastated by Sunday's passage of the health care bill and revved up by what they see as an unenforceable executive order to prohibit the federal funding of abortions, Pawlenty was a force with promise. The law he plugged requires MN women to be supplied with medical risks tied to abortions, available benefits and child support payments, and a description of the procedure 24 hours in advance of it as a way to dissuade them from going through with it.
For Pawlenty, who lacks the national stature of Romney and Huckabee, both of whom ran in '08, a focus on the base is essential at this early stage. He is little-known around the country, and though he's made a few high-profile trips to IA and NH, he has little of the infrastructure or the following of some of his potential WH'12 rivals.
That has made him more aggressive as he explores the idea of running for the WH. Romney has avoided some controversial stands until the outcome is a foregone conclusion; he did not get involved in the NY-23 race until near the end, while Pawlenty jumped in to endorse the Conservative Party candidate over the GOP nominee, for example.
Pawlenty agrees with Dems who say the '10 elections will set up a "clear choice" for voters. Panning "Obamacare," the MN GOV said the "reality" of the passed law is that federal funding of abortions will emerge, and that the group's values are under more fire than at any other time in history since Roe v. Wade was decided.
He went on to needle the bogeyman of the cycle: "Life is not given to us by Washington, D.C."
Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), who preceded Pawlenty on stage and accepted the group's award for being a distinguished leader, pushed the same point and went further to use it as a rallying cry to unify and re-energize the pro-life movement against Dems.
"I'm proud to say my state is the state of Michele Bachmann," Pawlenty said.