Pawlenty pardoned serial child molester in 2008

Wow. This is disturbing. I don't think I like Tim Pawlenty's judgement.

According to Kase Wickman at The Raw Story... Reporting by Minneapolis City Pages' Nick Pinto brought to attention a pardon then-Gov. Pawlenty granted to a sex offender in October 2008, which is sure to haunt the candidate throughout his campaign: the man Pawlenty pardoned was later arrested again for molesting his daughter more than 250 times in an eight-year span, including six years prior to his pardon.

Jeremy Giefer served 45 days in prison in 1994 after being convicted of statutory rape. However, because he married the then-14-year-old girl and stuck around to father the child they conceived together, he begged the state for an extraordinary pardon, which would no longer require Giefer to report himself as a sex offender.

The board — which includes the Minnesota attorney general, the chief justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court, and the governor (Pawlenty, at the time) — voted unanimously to pardon Giefer.

The damning details came in November 2010, when Giefer was again arrested on counts of sex with an underage girl — this time with the daughter he had conceived with Susan before his first rape charge.

"T-Paw's" presidential bid lands on obit page

This is hilarious. And Freudian? From The Hill's Daniel Strauss:
A local Minnesota newspaper placed its report on former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R) formally jumping into the 2012 presidential race right next to the obituaries.
The Monday edition of St. Paul Pioneer Press offers a small dispatch of Pawlenty's speech on the same page and directly next to the local obituaries.
Another local Minnesota paper, City Pages, began an item on the St. Paul Pioneer Press's placement of the Pawlenty story by saying, "Tim Pawlenty's presidential campaign is Dead on Arrival."

Tim "The Buick" Pawlenty officially enters 2012 GOP race

It's official. Former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty has declared his candidacy for the 2012 GOP nomination in a YouTube video! Unfortunately for "T-Paw," his super exciting announcement was met with a collective yawn.
On the bright side, GOP gray beards can relax knowing there is, for certain, a serious candidate to back not named Mitt Romney.
Pawlenty is already preempting fears that he cannot compete with Romney in the money race by calling his campaign a Buick, or something. Reliable... Apparently, Romney is the Mercedes of campaigners.

(Photo: Jim Mone, AP)