As I note, here. Unsettling.

And, if you receive his TIA Daily, don’t miss Rob Tacinski’s take — “Disqualified” — including a must-read segment on Tim Pawlenty, including:

Unlike Trump and Gingrich, former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty does not project a sense of preening personal vanity. They just don’t do that in Minnesota. And unlike Romney, he took the other approach to dealing with his worst piece of baggage: his support for cap-and-trade energy rationing. He has been quick to disavow it, saying that he “flirted” with the global-warming hysteria but now realizes that “it was a mistake, it was stupid. It was wrong.”

But this is quite misleading. Pawlenty did a lot more than “flirt” with global warming and cap-and-trade. He got into bed with it and carried on the affair for years. A Minnesota Democrat has put together a damning video montage of Pawlenty again and again and again affirming the supposed threat of global warming, backing cap-and-trade, and shilling for the whole “green jobs” scam.

Even just viewing this issue — which is an important one, as it tests Republicans on a matter they generally fear, and instinctively pander on — this field inspires little confidence in the prospect of producing a principled leader who is remotely intellectually curious (sorry, Newt, your history on the issue shows your curiosity at minimum wears ‘green’ blinders).

Whatever one’s other thoughts on this other fellow’s possible candidacy (he could, but likely won’t do a Nixon-Goes-to-China on ethanol), it’s just so baffling why he’s the only one to just swing at it, as the facts dictate; without seeking credit for the ask in a limp-wristed critique offered to move beyond a previous mistake (Huntsman), if still needing to take it further, to run over the idiotic economics of it all (hint to you, Gov. Pawlenty).

None of these folks has not tried in some way to still straddle the ‘green jobs’ fence. We’ve already had too many ethanols — and wind now outpaces ethanol by billions, while Republicans are cooking up yet another, thank you very little. 

So we’ve seen some what-not-to-dos. Now it’s time for someone to come clean on the whole spiel. Not arrogantly and ignorantly push back, a la Romney and Newt, and not go hyper-sleazy like Huntsman.

We have seen that it is possible for a politician to get it. The reasons why so many of these guys can’t all inform Rob T’s conclusion, IMO.