2012 Republican presidential candidate and occasional Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty’s presidential campaign official jumped the shark today. Or maybe this is the official kick-off. Hard to tell.
In 2006, Pawlenty talked about how important it was to address global climate change. In 2007, he signed comprehensive legislation to drastically reduce MN’s greenhouse gas emissions. However, by 2008 it was clear he wouldn’t be implementing the law and had stopped talking about it. Early this year he’d started making jokes that would go over well with the climate change deniers.
Now his transformation is complete:
Speaking to the Economist recently, Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R-MN) told reporters that he questions the science underpinning climate change. Pawlenty explained that while the earth might be warming, it is unclear “to what extent that is the result of natural causes.” As ThinkProgress has noted, Pawlenty has veered sharply to the right to appease a right-wing, tea party base. Although the tea party movement demands strict adherence to far right positions, as a Democracy Corps study shows, much of the movement sees political issues through a prism that is simply divorced from reality.
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