They are using Ron Paul to try to draw a crowd for Pawlenty. Or do they seriously pretend

[sailingaway]

Pawlenty is a tea party candidate?

LOL!

h xxp://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/18/pawlenty-scores-keynote-at-tea-party-summit/

[erowe1]

This is an interesting story. Keep an eye on Pawlenty.

[Sola_Fide]

These fools are all trying to sound "authentic". Sorry, not buying it.

[georgiaboy]

yeah, let's see the voting records. of all these GOP 'contenders'.

[ctiger2]

Pawlenty left his state with a $6billion deficit. The only thing he was good at was kicking the can down the road by stealing from the future.

Ron should drop out of this speaking engagement. Aren't the Tea Party Patriots the fake Dick Armey Tea Party type? I think so.

[erowe1]

Pawlenty left his state with a $6billion deficit. The only thing he was good at was kicking the can down the road by stealing from the future.

Ron should drop out of this speaking engagement. Aren't the Tea Party Patriots the fake Dick Armey Tea Party type? I think so.

If RP's going to avoid opportunities to speak to thousands of likely Republican primary voters because they occur at events sponsored by people he disagrees with, then he might as well not bother running.

And Dick Armey is a vocal opponent of the Iraq War, and an adherent of Austrian economics. We need to expand our numbers. And if we can't do it with the people in that crowd, then we can't do it anywhere.

[TomtheTinker]

Pawlenty/West or Rubio 2012<---establishments choice

[trey4sports]

If RP's going to avoid opportunities to speak to thousands of likely Republican primary voters because they occur at events sponsored by people he disagrees with, then he might as well not bother running.

And Dick Armey is a vocal opponent of the Iraq War, and an adherent of Austrian economics. We need to expand our numbers. And if we can't do it with the people in that crowd, then we can't do it anywhere.

Is he really an adherent of Austrian economics or is he just a "free market" guy? I would think that he would be a Ron Paul supporter if he were truly an Austrian

[Sola_Fide]

Is he really an adherent of Austrian economics or is he just a "free market" guy? I would think that he would be a Ron Paul supporter if he were truly an Austrian

I have actually heard Armey talk about Austrian economics.

[georgiaboy]

I have actually heard Armey talk about Austrian economics.

me too.

[nunaem]

I've heard Bush talk about non-interventionism. Just sayin'.

And Pawlenty is one big moderate, vanilla, undistinguished yawn. I listen to him when I have trouble sleeping.

[erowe1]

Is he really an adherent of Austrian economics or is he just a "free market" guy? I would think that he would be a Ron Paul supporter if he were truly an Austrian

He's a former economics professor and definitely an Austrian adherent, as is the co-author of his tea party book. I think he thinks RP is too extreme.

[Mini-Me]

He's a former economics professor and definitely an Austrian adherent, as is the co-author of his tea party book. I think he thinks RP is too extreme.

This is my favorite rebuttal to the charge of being too "extreme." (http://www.fff.org/freedom/0890b.asp)

Excerpt:

There is one type of question, more than any other, that the advocate of freedom is likely to be asked over the years: Human liberty and freedom of choice are, of course, important social and moral goods, but can't they be pushed too far? Is it not better to work for, and accept, a more moderate balance in society? Your position, it will be said, seems to offer no compromise, no happy medium through which a common ground can be found so that a reasonable amount of freedom can be attained. Don't you think your dogmatic extremism only serves to work against the very goals for which you are devoting your energies?

The first reply to this type of question, is to ask back, "With what are we asked to compromise and to offer a more moderate position?" The answer, of course, is that the advocate of freedom is being asked to find a common ground with state power and the use of government coercion in social affairs.

The problem is that ultimately there can be no compromise between freedom and coercion, between social relationships based upon mutual, voluntary consent, and human relationships ordered by command and backed up by the threat, or actual use, of force. There is an irreconcilable tension in a society that is part-free and part-slave. An individual who is prohibited from, or restrained in, his peaceful intercourse with other free men is not his own master. And to that extent he is a slave to the will and wishes of another.

But such a response by the advocate of freedom fails to touch the real heart of the matter. Who, in this debate over freedom and coercion, is the actual extremist and who is the actual moderate? The advocate of state coercion in social affairs cannot stand the fact that people make choices, and undertake courses of action, of which he disapproves. He objects to the fact that people fail to follow the paths that his reason and values consider rational and good. Everything else is either chaotic or sinister.
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