Pawlenty is now a banking lobbyist who shuttles between D.C. and Minnesota. The Financial Services Roundtable paid him $2.6 million in 2015, according to IRS documents. His lobbying work gives him access to the $15 million to $20 million that political operatives say would be needed in each of the 2018 and 2020 elections.
If a banking suck-up is the best to offer, there's little else:
Other Republicans who could be considered viable include U.S. Reps Jason Lewis and Erik Paulsen, state Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka and House Speaker Kurt Daudt, among others.
Mediocrity gets $2.6 million per year, and that means mediocrity stays at the trough.
Tom Emmer? Really Strib mentions Tom Emmer!
I like Pete Hegseth, giving up the FOX couch-talk thing, running and losing, then going back to FOX. There would be a Schadenfreude to that, Hegseth being Hegseth, with everything that entails.