Pawlenty Whacks Sanford: "Troubling And Hypocritical"

Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R-Minn.) offered one of the harshest rebukes from within the Republican Party of Mark Sanford, suggesting on Sunday that the South Carolina governor was hypocritical and had damaged the GOP at a time when the brand was already hurting.

"It's hard to quantify [the damage he has done]," said Pawlenty. "But clearly there has been damage. Any time you have leading figures who are engaged in behavior that's sad and troubling and hypocritical other people are going to look at that and say, 'Hmmm, they don't walk the walk. And so the words and the actions don't ring true."

Later in his segment on CNN's "State of the Union," Pawlenty would not push back against suggestions that Sanford had been directly derelict in his duties when he traveled to Argentina to conduct his affair. "Your staff has to be able to reach you and reach you quickly," Pawlenty said. "He should not have left the state and not allowed people to know how to contact him if something happened. That's obvious."

Both Pawlenty and Sanford have been discussed as possible contenders for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012. Sanford, naturally, has dropped from that discussion after his admission of marital misconduct. Still, it was curious to see Pawlenty take a shot at his gubernatorial compatriot. Other Republicans have either avoided the Sanford topic altogether or framed the issue as a personal, not professional, miscue.

But the Minnesota Republican didn't just slap Sanford on the wrist for leaving the state to meet his mistress. He also applauded Sanford's wife for not appearing alongside him during his emotional and lengthy press conference in which he confessed to and apologized for the matter.

"It's a sad and troubling situation with Jenny and Mark Sanford. I know them. I'm proud of Jenny for her strength and her commitment to her family and keeping that family together. Frankly, I was glad to see her not standing at the press conference like many have, and kind of charting her own path. Saying, look, I'm willing to forgive him, but I'm not going to stand here and condone this in any way."

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Comments

[grumbles]

Pawlenty, play to your base, show them how moral you are, you sanctimonious little twit!

[Francis 3]

Charting her own path?

Now why do I think Jenny Sanford's going to be named as a top GOP candidate??

[Antifascist-08]

Tim Pawlenty, possible presidential candidate in 2012, weighs in.

Scale fails to register.

[thegreatgiginthesky]

In a couple of months this guy is going to get nailed for the same thing.

[felisa11]

"Troubling And Hypocritical"

Sounds like an accurate description of the entire Republican Party

[Json]

Shouldn't he be off certifying a vote count somewhere??

[learntofly]

A worthless bench warmer with a mullet.

[bigsioux]

Pawlenty is just the latest version of a right-wing-religious-nut-job packaged as a conservative politician.
He is already running for president.

[MNmommy]

And T-Paw steps into the lead.

Lord help us, this man is ineffectual at best - destructive at worst. He has ruined our state's economy.

[den1953]

According to what i'm reading here Gov Sanford is alot like George Washington the father of our country he sleep all over the place!

[dax49]

with friends like this, who needs enemies- there the republicans go again- lunching on each other, even after sanford did the regulation "crying on camera"

[vcrotty]

That will come back to haunt him!

[Schoolgirl666]

But it was OK for him to support John McCain, another known Republican adulterer.....

[littlechuckie]

MN has had their fill (plenty) of Timmy. He's not running for Gov in 2010 because he'd lose his butt. Not a good resume` for 2012.

BTW - Timmy used to disapear in the middle of the night around opening fishing in MN - only to reappear with a large minnow on his stringer.

[MNmommy]

Hee!

[Wilbur]

These comments from they guy who was caught saying off camera something to the effect that he wished his wife would "put out" more often! Be careful, T-Paw: "Ask not for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee!"

Wilbur