Meet the candidates: Tim Pawlenty

A newcomer to the Republican presidential race for 2012 is Tim Pawlenty.  Pawlenty, known as “TPaw,” is the two-term governor of Minnesota and has been credited by the Wall St. Journal with offering the “most ambitious reform agenda so far.”

Pawlenty is a native of Minnesota and is a graduate of the University of Minnesota.  He originally planned to become a dentist, but changed his major to political science and then went on to earn a Juris Doctor from Minnesota’s law school.  After graduation, he worked as a labor lawyer and later become president of a software company. 

He got his start in politics as an appointed member of the City Planning Commission in Eagen, Minn.  A year later, in 1989, he was elected to the city council.  In 1992, Pawlenty was elected to Minnesota’s House of Representatives.  He was re-elected four times and became majority leader in 1998. 

In 2002, Pawlenty considered a run for Minnesota governor as well as a run for the U.S. Senate.  Although Minnesota’s GOP leaders preferred a different candidate, Pawlenty chose to run for governor when Vice President Cheney asked that he step aside to allow Norm Coleman to run for the senate seat.  Pawlenty won a three way race in the general election by campaigning on a pledge not to raise taxes, a twenty-four hour waiting period for abortions, education reform, and passage of a concealed carry law for guns.  Pawlenty won re-election in 2006, but elected not to run for a third term. 

As governor, Pawlenty says he balanced Minnesota’s budget without raising taxes.  While he did cut spending, critics charge that his balanced budgets were also the result of accounting tricks such as borrowing from other accounts, increasing fees and accepting federal stimulus funds.  For example, Fox News reports that Minnesota schools are owed more than $1.4 billion by the state’s general fund.  The Minnesota cigarette tax was increased by 75 cents under Pawlenty, although he calls this a fee rather than a tax.  Other taxes were increased as well though without Pawlenty’s approval.  The Democratic legislature overrode his veto of a gas tax increase, voters increased the sales tax, and local government increased property taxes. 

Though Pawlenty is no longer governor, Minnesota is facing a projected $5 billion shortfall, in part because spending cuts that Pawlenty enacted are beginning to expire.  Pawlenty defended his record, telling Fox News, "It's based on a big increase in projected spending — 20-some percent increase — that I never would've allowed."

A controversial aspect of Pawlenty’s tenure as governor involves Minnesota’s sharia-compliant home loan program.  As part of a program to expand home ownership, Minnesota’s state housing agency had set up a program that would allow Muslims to avoid paying interest on home mortgages, which many believe to be prohibited by Islamic sharia law.  Pawlenty has taken criticism for allowing the program, but according to a report by CBS News was not responsible for the program.  According to a statement by his office, the program was set up by the housing office acting on its own and Pawlenty ordered its termination when he became aware of it. 

Another controversy in Pawlenty’s past involves his past support for carbon cap-and-trade.  In 2008, he even went so far as to make a radio ad with Janet Napolitano, a Democrat who was then the governor of Arizona.  Napolitano is now Secretary of Homeland Security.  By 2009, Pawlenty was writing letters to Congress to oppose cap-and-trade legislation that was being considered.  According to Minnesota Public Radio, Pawlenty still believes that manmade greenhouse gas emissions are responsible for global warming, but opposes cap-and-trade on economic grounds.  He now says, “… all of us should be focused on reducing emissions and pollution, but we need to do that in a way that doesn't wreck the economy, doesn't hurt our farmers [and] doesn't hurt our manufacturers….”  Pawlenty believes that nuclear power fits that description.

Most recently, Pawlenty earned publicity for coining the term “Obamneycare” to describe the similarities between Mitt Romney’s Massachusetts health insurance law and Barack Obama’s federal law.  Pawlenty’s phrase highlights the fact that Romney enacted a centralized health care reform featuring an individual mandate when he was governor of Massachusetts.  In what is likely an undesired endorsement, President Obama praised Romney’s Massachusetts law in a February 2011 speech.

Pawlenty’s campaign manager, Nick Ayers, also worked on Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue’s re-election campaign in 2006.  While in Georgia, Ayers was arrested and charged with drunk driving in Valdosta.  Last month, a Minnesota website posted the dash cam video of Ayers’ arrest on the internet.  Ayers is a Georgia native.

Pawlenty’s campaign in Georgia will be headed by Eric Johnson, former president pro tempore of the Georgia Senate and candidate for Georgia governor.  According to CBS Minnesota, Johnson called Pawlenty “the most conservative candidate in the race that can beat President Obama” and said that he “is right on the fiscal issues and right on the social issues.”

At this point, Pawlenty is a long shot for the Republican nomination.  A May 2011 Gallup poll shows him in sixth place with six percent of Republicans favoring him.  Those numbers might increase following a recent speech unveiling his economic plan in which Pawlenty called for tax cuts and a simplification of the tax code along with a constitutional amendment that caps government spending at 18 percent of GDP.  (Federal spending is currently at about 40 percent of GDP according to USgovernmentspending.com.)  Pawlenty’s plan is the polar opposite of the Obama economic plan and that might just be what voters are looking for in 2012.

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Woman tells why she sent bloody pig foot to congressman

Jameela with Dustin Hoffman in 1996 (Courtesy of Jameela Barnette)

As a follow up to the story last week about Jameela Barnette, the Marietta woman who allegedly mailed a pig foot to Rep. Peter King and a Curious George doll to N.Y. state Senator Greg Ball, Examiner.com spoke with Mrs. Barnette to find out just why she sent the packages to the lawmakers.  In the story last week, Examiner.com detailed how Barnette was accused of sending anti-Semitic and anti-Christian letters along with a bloody pig foot and a stuffed Curious George doll emblazoned with anti-Semitic references.  The story was simultaneously published on CaptainKudzu.com, where Jameela left several comments. 

Mrs. Barnette says that her name is Jameela Barnette, in spite of initial reports that her first name was Jacquelyn.  She is married with two daughters and one granddaughter.  She is originally from California, but now lives in Marietta. 

Mrs. Barnette confirms that she did send the letters, the pig foot, and the monkey to Rep. King and Sen. Ball.  She provided copies of the letters sent to the lawmakers.  As initially reported the letters would be deemed offensive and insulting, and probably alarming as well, by most people. 

Mrs. Barnette was reportedly a blogger, but says that she does not have her own blog.  She says that she posts on anti-Muslim websites such as Jihad Watch and Creeping Sharia.  She has provided several examples of her “revelations,” some of which will be attached to this article as comments.

When asked whether she believes that her mailings broke the law, Mrs. Barnette states that she is certain that she did not.  She states that she attended law school for a semester and that one of her daughters and a son-in-law are attorneys.  She says that she does not have a prior criminal record and that she still has not been contacted by law enforcement.  She does say that she sent Rep. King an email on a prior occasion.  The congressman contacted the U.S. Capitol police, who then contacted Mrs. Barnette.  She says that the matter never went any further.  She also provided the author with a copy of a letter sent to Attorney General Eric Holder in November 2010 accusing Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.) with treason for pledging allegiance to Israel.  This letter can also be seen in a Facebook posting.

Rep. Peter King

According to inquiries with the U.S. Capitol police and the N.Y. State Police, the matter is under investigation.  The F.B.I. declined to comment and the Marietta Police Department and G.B.I. say that they are not aware of the case.  The letters are rife with hateful speech and insults, including an invitation for Rep. King to “kiss my black, Muslim-American a--” and a prophecy that Sen. Ball will contract prostate cancer, but seem to stop short of overt threats.  She seems to have tried to avoid breaking the law, even while pushing the law’s limits to make her point. 

What was her point exactly?  In her words, “My only goal was to warn them of the coming torment of their Lord.”  Mrs. Barnette is a Hanif Muslim.  Hanif Islam’s adherents believe that it is a pure form of Islam that was originally practiced by Abraham, the Biblical patriarch.  Hanifs are neither Sunni nor Shia.  They reject the hadiths, traditions of the sayings and actions of Muhammad outside the Quran that are accepted by Sunnis and Shiites. 

Mrs. Barnette says, “There is only one branch of Islam and it is called Hanif Islam, the religion of Abraham, who was a pure Muslim. Those who break themselves into sects (i.e. Shia and Sunni) have disobeyed their Lord, Allah, therefore there is no Shia and Sunni, only disobedient wanna-be [sic] Muslims.” 

Mrs. Barnette, who typically signs her name with the terms “Messenger of Allah and Defender of Islam,” says that she does not attend a mosque because “because I choose not to be in the company of compliant and cowardly Muslims, who are not Muslims [emphasis hers] because they consider themselves ‘Moderate’ Muslims and they have compromised their religion away.” 

Interestingly, Mrs. Barnette says that she used to be Jewish.  She says that she attended Ohr Hatorah Synagogue in the Los Angeles area when she lived in California.  After reading the Quran, she became convinced that it represented absolute truth.  She says that both of her daughters still practice Judaism.  Mrs. Barnette now believes the words of the Quran when it says that Jews were transformed by Allah into “monkeys and swine” (Surah 5:60).

Mrs. Barnette answers with a simple “yes” when asked if terrorist attacks and suicide bombings are justified.  When asked whether she has any connection to groups that use violence or terror, she says,”Yes.  By virtue of my citizenship, I am a citizen of the biggest terrorist group in the annals of history, the United States of America.”

She says that she does not hate the United States, however.  “How can I hate the country that my ancestor’s slave labor built?  I consider myself to be the Last American Patriot.  Just because I don’t agree with the majority of Americans on foreign policy, doesn’t mean I hate my country.   I love the country that my ancestor’s slave labor built.  And on the Day of Resurrection, you will learn the majority was wrong about religion” [emphasis hers].

Whether she hates the U.S. or not, Mrs. Barnette would like to see it changed.  She says that she would like to see Islamic law, referred to as sunnah, imposed on the United States, although she doesn’t believe it will happen in her lifetime.  She quotes a hadith verse which says that “all mankind will be required to embrace Islam with no other alternative” (Abu Dawud 37:4310).  Her letter to Rep. King looks toward a future where “America will be a bright, Muslim-friendly America, it will be an America where white b-----s will name their sons Mohammad and those former, blond-haired, blue-eyed, bible-belt b-----s will veil their dirty-white faces and the faces of their dirty-white daughters…”  She says that America’s only option is to “accept defeat and embrace Islam.” 

When asked who she voted for in the 2008 presidential election, Mrs. Barnette says that her vote for Barack Obama was “the worst mistake I can recall making in recent history.  I miss President George Bush, as do most Americans.”

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