The Candidates
The New Republic has an interesting profile of Tim Pawlenty (no doubt in anticipation of the Veepstakes) in their new issue. Scheiber’s central thesis? Pawlenty’s Sam’s Club Republicanism is really just heartless Country-Club Republicanism packaged with blue-collar language and humble roots. Here are some highlights, but read the whole thing.
My encounter with Pawlenty actually began as a wholesome affair. I’d shown up to watch him welcome home a detachment of national guardsmen in Roseville, a Minneapolis suburb. At 47, he is lean and vigorous, with plush brown hair. He beamed like a scoutmaster awarding merit badges. Every sibling of a returning guardsman was prompted to expound on the pride they felt. Every spouse was urged to catalogue the difficulties they’d faced alone. The kids were especially doted over. “I wonder if I met you guys before? You guys gave me the rabbit ears,” Pawlenty said to the young daughters of one of the battalion’s former officers. It turned out that this first meeting had moved the elder daughter to write a “biography” of Pawlenty for school. “You did?” he gushed. “You didn’t even talk to me.”
As we were leaving, a stout, middle-aged woman with short, reddish hair flagged the governor down. “Them guys want to buy you a beer,” she announced. Pawlenty was bemused. He is taller than average, but his shoulders are narrower than you want them to be. “Oh yeah? Who’s them guys?” he asked. The next thing I knew, we were in a dimly lit bar adjoining the American Legion hall where the ceremony had taken place. It was barely three o’clock, but the regulars looked like they’d been imbibing for hours. Women with faded tattoos fought to snap cell-phone pictures. (”I don’t want a group photo, I want to be alone,” demanded one.) A shaggy-looking man named Mer sidled up to Pawlenty, who greeted him with a disquisition on nearby fast-food joints. (”I used to date a girl in Roseville,” the governor said, explaining his knowledge of the local cuisine.) Pawlenty only managed to pry himself loose by pleading that his wife would kill him if he turned up even later. This prompted more cooing. “Ooh, I love your wife. … She knows how to fish,” exclaimed a woman named Joyce….
As it happens, it was Pawlenty–the son of a truck driver from the blue-collar enclave of South St. Paul–who first coined the Sam’s Club phrase back in 2001. At the time, Pawlenty found himself in a fight for the gubernatorial nomination with a millionaire political novice named Brian Sullivan. Sullivan had spent a minor fortune touting himself as the embodiment of conservative purity. Pawlenty’s response was to paint Sullivan as an economic elitist. He wondered if Sullivan might reinforce “the stereotype of the Republican Party … that we’re all a bunch of wealthy snobs” and urged the party to reach out to member’s of “Sam’s Club, not just the country club.” That Pawlenty not only won the nomination, but went on to win two terms as governor of a Democratic state, has, not surprisingly, turned heads in Washington. Even Ted Kennedy has pronounced him “one of the most persuasive Republicans I’ve ever heard.” But, while there’s no doubting Pawlenty’s considerable political skills–and the impeccable logic of a McCain-Pawlenty ticket–he also highlights the implausibility of the GOP’s working-class makeover.
That Pawlenty would feel at home among downscale Minnesotans is hardly surprising: He literally was at home with them for his first 18 years. Pawlenty’s Teamster father was part of the Eastern European working class that powered South St. Paul’s once-thriving slaughterhouses. “People used to tease us because the town had a certain smell to it,” Pawlenty recalls. “They’d say, ‘God, something smells so bad.’ We’d say, ‘What are you talking about?’ We didn’t notice.” Few people moved in or, more surprisingly, out of the community. But its strong union presence, its proud conservative ethic, and its first- rate schools led to a gradually rising affluence during the first half of the twentieth century.
Beginning in the late ’60s, however, the meat-processing plants began to close as the industry decentralized. The layoffs created massive unemployment–nearly 10,000 lost jobs in a town of 25,000. By the time Pawlenty, the youngest of five children, was a teenager, it was clear that the stockyards were doomed. Pawlenty’s cancer-stricken mother made his siblings promise to send him to college–he would be the first in his family to go….
Whatever the behind-the-scenes intrigue, Pawlenty’s public profile has always held a certain appeal. He may be the first generation of politician to benefit from a kind of working-class identity politics, and he endlessly exudes what you might call blue-collar pride. “Let me give you the quick rundown,” he said during our interview. “My oldest brother Steve worked for most of life–forty-plus years–in a grocery store. He was with the United Food Commercial Workers. My other brother Dan spent most of his life in an oil refinery; he’s now a municipal worker. … My sister Rose is a special-ed aide in a public school. My other sister has been a secretary for forty years.”…
There is, in fact, little in Pawlenty’s oeuvre that Grover Norquist would object to, as Norquist himself recently assured me. Back in 2002, he signed a no-new-taxes pledge thrust upon him by Strom’s advocacy group. At the time, Minnesota was facing a projected two-year deficit of about $1.6 billion. When he took office the following year, the figure had ballooned to over $4 billion, much of that thanks to the upper-income tax cuts he’d pushed as majority leader. Yet Pawlenty didn’t relent. He cut massively from social spending programs and aid to local governments. This resulted in years of rising property taxes. (Pawlenty notes in response that property taxes get set locally. “We expected cities and counties to keep a lid on taxes and hold down spending,” he says.) As Democrats have gained ground in the legislature, Pawlenty has supported marginally more spending on health care, education, and infrastructure. But no one could confuse him for Hubert Humphrey (or, for that matter, George W. Bush)….
Talking to Pawlenty at the American Legion hall, I got the impression his strain of Sam’s Club Republicanism is largely about marketing. I asked if the party could survive in its present form–with working-class people delivering more and more votes, but wealthy people providing most of the financing. “I don’t think it’s a class-warfare issue at all,” he told me. We were sitting at a brown folding table. Pawlenty kept his hands in his lap and leaned toward me, giving him the look of a dutiful grammar student. “We have to change not [our] values and principles–I want to be clear about that. … We’re going to have to do a much better job about having messengers, messages that resonate. … It helps if you could say, ‘Look, I’ve been in your spot. Let me tell you how it worked, didn’t work for me.’” Pawlenty may genuinely want to ease the strain on working people. But what he’s selling them is a self-help manual, albeit in language they can relate to. It’s not the party of Sam’s Club per se–but of moving from Sam’s Club to the country club in ten simple steps.
Update: Tim Pawlenty will be appearing on Fox News Sunday tomorrow, so tune in.
June 7th, 2008 at 4:53 pm
I supported Sullivan in 2002. I still believe that Sullivan had more of a presence than Pawlenty. I still remained conflicted about Pawlenty. Like Romney, he wasn’t a great party builder: the GOP in this state has been utterly destroyed. I always thought he had strange ideas. One was instituting toll roads in the sane lanes, which has been a net loss. He never, NEVER reduced the size of government; spending has gone up dramatically. He did cut too much in local aid and property taxes have been a disaster here. Though, that’s mostly because Ventura’s property tax reforms backfired. With that said, Pawlenty personifies what the Republican Party has become. It’s no longer the upper-class (1-5%), patrician, pro-choice, moderate party of the NE. It’s the middle/working class party of the suburbs and exurbs. In a way, there’s no one more fitting to become VP than him.
June 7th, 2008 at 5:05 pm
IR-MN,
Have I missed something, or didn’t the Minnesota GOP hold majorities in both houses after 2004? To be sure, Pawlenty didn’t manage to save them in 2006 but God himself couldn’t have saved generic Republicans in a blue-state in 2006. Every state GOP in the country, save those in the deep South, lost massive numbers of seats in 2006. And if Sullivan had been nominated (and I’m far from convinced he would have won even in 2002, and I’ve done some research on that election) in 2002, it would have been worse, and he would have handed the keys to the state over to Mike Hatch to boot. It was unfair to blame Romney for the struggles of the Massachusetts GOP, and it’s even more unfair to blame Pawlenty for the struggles of the Minnesota GOP. As far as Pawlenty’s record is concerned, I’ll only say that I think you’re quite wrong. And CATO thinks your wrong. And Grover Norquist thinks you’re wrong. And undoubtedly the Club for Growth thinks you’re wrong. Tim Pawlenty has been, almost without question, the most fiscally conservative blue-state Governor in America over the last 6 years. This year he vetoed substantially more bills then any Minnesota Governor since the Great Depression for crying out loud.
June 7th, 2008 at 5:09 pm
Nice catch on this piece, Matthew.
Frankly, I wish the piece was factual — that Pawlenty was really a rock-ribbed conservative in working class costume. As IR-MN points out, Pawlenty has governed as a moderate and even David Strom — founder of the Taxpayer’s League who this article portrays as a Pawlenty ally — is not enamored with the Governor.
The fact is that Pawlenty is broadly popular here in Minnesota, but he is nothing close to a movement conservative. Pawlenty is the product of a national marketing campaign concocted by Tony Fabrizio, Ed Gillespie, Vin Weber and some other beltway types who think they can turn the personally appealing Pawlenty into the next GOP heavyweight.
They may well succeed, in fact, I would bet that they do. But conservatives should be under no illusions that Pawlenty is anything but a pragmatic moderate Republican. He is probably the closest thing to a Bush big government conservative remaining.
However, as I’ve said here many times before, he will also be one of the most likeable and talented candidates we could offer.
June 7th, 2008 at 5:16 pm
BTW, I love the fact that he orchestrated the call from Cheney. That is the first time I’ve ever heard that even though the call is the stuff of local legend. It shows that Pawlenty, if nothing else, has great political instincts and negotiation skills.
June 7th, 2008 at 5:22 pm
The author’s problem with Sam’s Club Republicanism lies in the common disconnect between affluent leftists who are supposedly concerned about the working classes and the actual working classes themselves.
When you push leftists hard enough, you find that what’s really at their core is a contempt for wealth, success, prosperity, and a belief that money is the root of all evil. The thing is, the poorest people in America are about as far removed from this world view as is possible. My grandfather was the son of Italian immigrants who made a living as a barber. The values he instilled in me went something like this: money is the solution to most of life’s problems, money covers a lot of sins, do what you can in life to make as much damned money as possible. Most of the folks who shop at Sam’s Club would love to be in the median tax bracket of the members of their local country club. Pawently’s Sam’s Club Republicanism is an attempt to provide them with the ladder to get there. The idea is that a society that gives people the tools they need to achieve upward mobility is the one that opens the doors of the country club to the people who shop at Sam’s Club.
June 7th, 2008 at 5:23 pm
Going off of Gary, Pawlenty really is a political machine. Matt, I don’t dislike Pawlenty: He’s our firewall. You wouldn’t believe how insane the DFL is. Look who they just nominated for the Senate. But you don’t live here; if you did, you will see Pawlenty’s warts which the people in #2 don’t see. D.C. politicos really are a dumb bunch. We have the last eights years b/c of them. Sullivan would’ve won in 02 b/c the field was much more fractured than 06. Moe wasn’t anything special and Tim Penny had a genuine following. Basically Pawlenty won the GOP and GOP learners in 02, which is what Sullivan would’ve won also. I agree Sullivan would’ve been in worse shape than Pawlenty in 06, but maybe things would’ve been the same.
June 7th, 2008 at 5:27 pm
Pawlenty is fiscally conservative in that the budget has been always balanced. But he isn’t an economic conservative: one that reduces taxes and the size of government. The State Senate has never been GOP and the epic collapse in the GOP House Caucus has been nothing but amazing.
June 7th, 2008 at 5:34 pm
IR-MN,
I understand his flaws. He’s liberal environmentally (though I doubt you’d consider this a flaw). He tends to triangulate a bit, as best as I can tell. He doesn’t, generally speaking, give typical conservative defenses of typical conservative causes; i.e, he doesn’t rhetorically go to bat for conservatism as conservatism. I wouldn’t even quibble with Gary’s comment that he’s not a “movement” conservative. But, then neither was Bill Clinton a movement liberal. But, at the end of the day, he still curiously seemed to achieve many of the goals of movement liberalism. You don’t need movement conservatives to run for office, even in the best of times; you need people who can connect to voters, while essentially advancing the agenda of movement conservatism.
June 7th, 2008 at 6:00 pm
OH…Big Brown came in 10th….
Not sure if there is any odd connection with the winning horse, but the second place horse is name Macho Again and is own by something group called West Point Group…
June 7th, 2008 at 6:27 pm
TPaw will be on Foxnews Sunday with Gov. Kaine of VA.
Just a few months ago it seemed Pawlenty and Sanford were like #1 and 2 on the VP list and now both seem to have fallen off. Most of us not living in their states could not possibly know as much as their citizenry, but most everything I have heard of both men impresses me.
June 7th, 2008 at 6:42 pm
In #5, DaveG almost makes our people sound greedy. It’s not that working class voters are greedy (well you’ll find a few greedy jerks in any group).
It’s that can do much more with a little money. They’re not going to hate money because they know what it’s like to need more money than you have.
If they have to choose between saving the spotted owl and having a job (decision latte liberals never face), they’ll choose to kill the owl every time.
My mother worked like crazy, not because she was greedy but because she had several mouths to feed at home and every dollar helped.
DaveG does remind me of the dream I grew up with. The dream was one day to have enough money to feel ’safe’. I wonder if that’s a common working class dream?
June 7th, 2008 at 7:04 pm
Q&A How can McCain SIMULTANEOUSLY attract both Hillary AND Bob Barr voters? Answer: PALIN Veep!
June 7th, 2008 at 7:25 pm
Hillary voters are pro-choice, Palin is extremely pro-life, they are not going to suppot a ticket with her on it - or at least, not BECAUSE she is on it.
June 7th, 2008 at 7:41 pm
Tim is further behind in intrade today than he has been yet. Mitt seems to have some momentum today; he hit 25 for the first time ever over 22.9. I’ll vote for McCain with Pawlenty if he chooses him.
June 7th, 2008 at 7:48 pm
You may have a point ACT that Hillary voters will not necessarily back Mrs. Palin. However, not every Hillary voter is a Pro-Choice radical, some are just economic liberals.
June 7th, 2008 at 8:19 pm
Roseville, MN… my hometown.
June 7th, 2008 at 8:40 pm
#11 Doug: To be sure, my grandfather always decried “greed,” in the sense that he thought that creditors who charge 28% interest rates to bury folks forever in debt would have a special present waiting for them in hell.
June 7th, 2008 at 9:17 pm
Also, Bush-Cheney got a sizeable amount of pro-choice votes. If you look back, pro lifers are much more likely to vote on abortion than pro-choicers. Since Roe, many more pro-choicers have voted for the pro-life GOP than the other way around.
As for Big Brown, perhaps that’s an omen for the fall. Big Brown(I don’t think I have to say which candidate he is in this metaphor) had been the media darling, the 2nd coming, the best horse ever, unbeatable and posied to make history. The competition was said to be weak and his top challenger was scratched from the field. He lost big and came in last.
Consider that many took the KY derby as a metaphor when Big Brown ran away with it as the filly Eight Belles just lost at the finish and had to be put down on the track.
Also, just look at sports this year. The Patriots were 18-0 and undefeated, they lost to the Giants.
Upsets do happen.
June 7th, 2008 at 9:30 pm
Don’t discount Chris Cox!
Because it won’t be Romney.
June 7th, 2008 at 10:54 pm
Romney was in VA on behalf of McCain - now I don’t know if it will deffinately be him, but Romney certainly seems to be getting quite a few assignments from the McCain camp.
Also, Romney is pushing 25 on intrade - which Metro is quite fond of quoting.
June 8th, 2008 at 12:12 am
Is Sanford doing anything for McCain?
By the way Huck apparently saved some guy’s life today.
June 8th, 2008 at 10:30 am
Still seems to me that McCain can SIMULTANEOUSLY best attract both Hillary AND Bob Barr voters with Alaska Gov Sarah Palin as Veep.
June 8th, 2008 at 11:45 am
Ted, you gotta explain that one to me. Most people don’t even know who Palin is.
June 8th, 2008 at 2:00 pm
Metro, small world.
I too am from Roseville. Went to St Rose School on Hamline and STA for high school.