TPT reporter Mary Lahammer blogs about the rather detached performance by Governor Pawlenty at the press conference announcing his new 21st Century Tax Reform Commission.
The governor usually gives a really good press conference with some solid quotes and witty interactions. Today he announced a tax reform commission and the event wasn't exactly riveting. I know it's taxes — not the most exciting topic, but it should be for Capitol nerds like us.
The tax portion of the press conference lasted just 15 minutes. That's short for our grilling of our chief executive, which tends to run closer to half an hour. We generally really appreciate the fact he spends time with us, often pushing back other events to take our questions. He did humor us with taking other non-related questions. But our efforts to humor him didn't really work.
She describes a couple of the questions Pawlenty answered only superficially, but doesn't mention a gaffe that I found particularly telling.
When introducing five of the 15 members of the commission who were present at the press conference, the governor clearly did not know two of them and fumbled as he looked for their bios in his notes.
Certainly, the governor has a lot things on his mind between the state budget and the McCain campaign, and the screening of his commission was done by staff. But if tax reform to aid business and promote economic growth is a priority, wouldn't he at least have met his appointees?
