Pawlenty on the shutdown

Former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty’s presidential campaign is out with a new commercial, scrapping the speeches and glitz of previous commercials and stressing Pawlenty’s role in Minnesota’s 2005 shutdown.

The ad makes no mention that one of the reasons the 2005 state shutdown lasted as long as it did, was Pawlenty’s insistence on a tax on cigarettes, which he called a “health impact fee.”

Nor does it contain Pawlenty’s quote after the shutdown ended: “”Government is going to grow. Government does important things. We just want it to grow within reason and grow at a rate that’s sustainable”