Political Quote of the Day

I've commented before on this guy, who seems (from the occasional things I've seen) to be one of the most interesting figures in politics today:

Here he is on the Republican Party's rough night yesterday:

"Things aren't going well for the president or the Republican Party nationally," he said. "That's fairly obvious."

In a more lighthearted vein, [Minnesota governor Tim] Pawlenty joked: "I hope voters are smart enough to know that I'm not involved in the Valerie Plame affair; I didn't leak the name of a covert agent." That was a reference to the outed CIA agent whose case now threatens the top echelons of the Bush administration.

Pawlenty also qualified a recent statement -- that he would stand by Bush even if he were at "2 percent" in the polls -- saying that he was not pledging "blind allegiance" to the president.

Rather, he said, it was a statement of personal friendship. "I don't embrace everything Bush says," he said. "I don't mean I'm going to blindly follow every policy initiative. But politics is smarmy enough without people bailing out on friends just because times are tough. That's a weenie move. I'm not going to run away like a little chicken from President Bush because he's unpopular."

I like that: "that's a weenie move." And I like how he's loyal, but not blind.

P.S. I'm going to be real busy up through Thanksgiving, so probably no posts before then. Happy turkeys to every one. And if you can, check out the Rev. Edward J. Balfour's article in November's Lutheran Witness on Jewish evangelism. He's a great pastor and a great writer.