The American Spectator : The Spectacle Blog : Pawlenty on Past Support for Cap and Trade: “It was stupid. It was wrong.”

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The Spectacle Blog

Pawlenty on Past Support for Cap and Trade: “It was stupid. It was wrong.”

By Philip Klein on 2.11.11 @ 12:39PM

Tim Pawlenty, former Minnesota governor and likely presidential candidate, acknowledged that he once supported ‘cap and trade' but has since switched his position.

"Almost everybody who's running has a similar problem," Pawlenty said, responding to a question I posed to him at a meeting with bloggers during CPAC. "I think if you look under the hood you'll see that I, like everybody else potentially running, looked at it, flirted with it, and then decided it was a bad idea."

However, Pawlenty emphasized that he wasn't trying to equivocate.

"Have I changed by position?" he said. "Yes. But I'm not going to be cute about it, hem and haw, be dippy and dancy about it. Just saying yeah, it was a mistake, it was stupid. It was wrong."

I asked about cap and trade as part of a broader question about the perception that in the past few years he's tried to move from being a moderate Republican governor to a red meat conservative in anticipation of a presidential run.

"In general, my record, both as governor for eight years and as a legislator years before that, including as majority leader, is an undeniably conservative record," he responded, noting that he governed in an extremely liberal state. "Now have I had a few clunkers along the way? Yeah, but anybody who's running who has been in office, has a few clunkers. I think mine are fewer and less severe than most."

He also touted his "A" rating from the Cato Institute's Report Card on Governor's.

Pawlenty addresses the general CPAC audience later this afternoon.

View all comments (13) | Leave a comment

JASmius| 2.11.11 @ 12:54PM

Hugh Hewitt'll never support him....

Kenny| 2.11.11 @ 1:13PM

Newt is still drinking the man-made global warming Kool-Aid.

George S| 2.11.11 @ 1:30PM

Global warming, recycling, going green... all the rage back then. Politicians who adapt to trends see where voting blocs are formed. Gingrich, Upton and Pawlenty, too, didn't miss a beat and artfully applied the concept of a "Conservative Solution" to these fraudulent schemes. Now that AGW is shown to be the fraud that it always has been, suddenly "conservative solutions" turn into the equivalent of a job applicant dismissing prior drug use to the Youthful Indiscretion fairy.

Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 2.11.11 @ 1:53PM

Anyone who is foolish enough to believe man can change the climate can be fooled about anything. NEXT!

Gene| 2.11.11 @ 7:10PM

One only has to think back a short time to Katrina if you think man can control the climate,, it's impossible.

Occam's Tool| 2.11.11 @ 2:45PM

I worked for the guy. Not much there.

Sean| 2.11.11 @ 3:08PM

nice to see the confession. Too bad is disqualifies you for office. This is the Presidency we are talking about not student council. We need someone with a better thinking process.

PattyMor| 2.11.11 @ 3:20PM

Anybody who thinks so superficially as to sign on to Global Warming/Global Climate Change, is not fit to be president. You can throw Newty in the same reject pile.

LazyCat77| 2.11.11 @ 3:24PM

Notice the blame avoidance here. If he were really earnest about being honest, he would have said "I was stupid. I was wrong."

WJ| 2.11.11 @ 3:40PM

He made a mistake. He admits it. He is not equivocating.

On other areas, don't know much about Pawlenty's policies, but give the guy a break on this.

Wayne | 2.11.11 @ 4:49PM

Now how about those ethanol subsidies? Anyone for these, even it give money to constituents is not fit to run. We are looking for a candidate who stands by principal and intelligence. I also want to hear about investigating the truth behind the Warmist conspiracy to defraud. It will no doubt lead to Marxists.

Boston12GS| 2.11.11 @ 5:18PM

And yet Mitt Romney can't apologize for the devastation he brought upon the Massachusetts health insurance market with RomneyCare.

Getting ready to send out yet another monthly $1,000 check for medical insurance coverage of two healthy adults, with a $4,000 deductible--so $16,000 a year of payments before ANY benefits kick in. And generally, we don't NEED any, since we're healthy, so it's $16,000 a year for nothing at all. Of course, a catastrophic-only health care policy, which would be at reasonable cost and protect us only against the worst of disasters, has been made illegal here in MA.

Thanks, Mitt. You ^*(&^(*&^.

bobby b| 2.12.11 @ 11:15PM

Minnesotans are a liberal bunch. They gave the country Paul Wellstone, Walter Mondale, Hubert Humphrey, Stuart Smalley, and a host of behind-the-scenes liberal flames.

And yet, somehow, they elected Pawlenty as their governor, knowing full well he was quite conservative.

For his entire time in office, he had to work towards conservative goals knowing he was surrounded by liberality. He became a master at tightrope walking, and he accomplished much - very much - in the way of keeping Minnesota from loopy-left-land.

He vetoed often, and kept up his popularity, not by pandering or moving to the left, but by rationally making and defending tough choices.

I'm a MN conservative, and I'd recommend him.