MN Governor Pawlenty went to Iraq

[Deja Q]

Given the $4 Billion deficit he said we'd all have to suffer for (except the rich, naturally), and given his lust to waste taxpayer money for multiple football stadium for multiple sports teams that can pay for the damn things themselves given what they charge their fans... now Paw-wussy goes to Iraq.

Why this waste of money?

And will Minnesotans tolerate this nonsense?

Star Tribune had an article, but it required membership in order to view it. It's "free", but you have to give them your name and address and phone # and de-select a bunch of promotions. Sorry, for reading an article that cannot be replied to, nobody should have to sign up for a damn thing.

[KamaAina]

1. HI Gov. Lingle (R-Huge Mainland Donations) went with him

and our newspaper sites don't hit you with that registration crap, against which I've railed in the Media forum:

http://starbulletin.com/breaking/breaking.php?id=2358

Gov. Linda Lingle, on a two-day surprise visit to Iraq, presented Schofield Barracks soldiers in Baghdad today with letters from Hawaii school children and 50 boxes of macadamia nuts.

Lingle is part of a six-governor delegation that was under strict orders not to discuss the trip. The six were told the trip would be canceled if word leaked out beforehand. This is Lingle’s first visit to a combat zone.

Really? Her first visit to a combat zone? I woulda never guessed in a million years... </sarcasm>

Her office said Lingle also would visit with university students and tour a women’s center to learn more about women’s rights issues in the emerging Iraqi government.

Uh, correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't all those newly empowered Shi'ite clerics actually eroding women's rights in our 51st State?

The other governors on the trip are Kathleen Blanco (D-La.); Ted Kulongoski, (D-Ore.); George E. Pataki, (R-N.Y.); Dirk Kempthorne, (R-Idaho); and Tim Pawlenty, (R-Minn.) Kempthorne, chairman of the National Governors Association, is honorary chairman of the delegation of two Democrats and four Republicans, including Lingle.

Like any good Hawai'i traveler, Lingle brought chocolate mac nuts (50 boxes); let's see: a few bags of crawfish from Blanco, sacks of potatoes from Kempthorne, maybe some Nathan's hot dogs from Pataki, and they're in business :-) What would you suggest Pawlenty bring to the shindig? A hotdish, perhaps?

[Lydia Leftcoast]

2. It stands to reason that one of the two Dems would be

Oregon's Ted Kulongoski, whose only virtue is that he's not the knuckledragging Republican Kevin Mannix, who almost won the governorship.