MN Chamber Of Commerce To Gov. Pawlenty: Be Sensible About Health Care Money

This afternoon, Gov. Pawlenty returned to Fox News to repeat last night's laugh line about government "financial drug dealer[s]" giving out "free samples" to get poor, innocent states hooked on federal money. Not news, exactly (though it reinforces the sense that Gov. Pawlenty wishes to be President Pawlenty, and soon). 

But here's the good part:

The Minnesota Chamber of Commerce is urging Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty not to turn his back on the federal health care overhaul.

The Republican-friendly organization sent the governor a letter Monday encouraging him to apply for a $1 million planning grant to research and analyze a potential health insurance exchange where consumers could buy medical coverage.

A day later, Pawlenty ordered state agencies to decline "discretionary" involvement in the federal law unless required by law or approved by his office. He also passed on applying for the insurance planning grant.

It bears repeating that none of this matters to Pawlenty.  He's grabbed headlines with a flexible executive order that he hopes will allow Minnesota to scoop up the "good parts" of health care reform. He's grabbed a few extra interviews with the drug pusher analogy.  And he has already decided he hates the Affordable Care Act so much that it's not even worth considering how the law might affect Minnesotans — even when job creators in his own state are asking him to act like a grown-up.