T-Paw Steps In The Gaga Again

T-Paw Steps In The Gaga Again

Tim, Tim. Tim. I'm sorry I compared you to a can of generic cola yesterday. Sure, you need some pizzazz. But I didn't mean for you to go out and start talking about Lady Gaga again:

Yes, the Unlikeliest Little Monster is once again trying to look cool, and this time we have video. It's just short of two minutes into the softball interview. He's almost escaped... and then HE's the one who goes there:



The weird part is, he stumbles onto some semi-lucid thoughts that would make sense in any context other than a Republican nominating contest:

“Well you know, in terms of the beat, I like ‘Bad Romance,’” Pawlenty said. “I gotta say, even though she’s a little unusual, ‘Born this Way’ has some appeal. She’s actually very talented. Now if you go to the end of the HBO special, the Lady Gaga HBO special, and you watch her sing a cappella “Born This Way,” she can sing. She can definitely sing. She’s talented.”

True enough; look around a bit on line and there's a lot of good versions of her music without the dance-pop glitz, stripped down to the songs.

Somewhat apologetically, Pawlenty also noted that if he limited his artistic taste only to conservatives, he “wouldn’t have a lot of choices.”

Yeah, and as we've noticed all last campaign and again with the Michele Bachmann-Tom Petty fight last week, it's always artists from the left objecting to candidates from the right. Pawlenty names several other left-leaning artists: Springsteen, Mellencamp... heck, even one of his country faves, Tim McGraw, is one of the few Democrats in Nashville.

“You gotta be willing to tolerate different politics,” he said.

Fair enough. But me acknowledging that despite my differences with Ted Nugent's politics, "Cat Scratch Fever" kicks much ass is one thing. Tim Pawlenty going out of his way to praise a queer-pride anthem with the hook line "don't be a drag, just be a queen"? It's really hard to credibly separate that song from its politics.

Is it cluelessness, cynicism, clumsiness, or all of the above? Or is it some kind of double reverse dog whistle Jedi mind trick? But it's risky; I'm surprised Bob Vander Plaats didn't have an anti-Gaga line in his famIly leader pledge, right next to Sharia law.