Former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty is reaching out to the tea parties and doing it in big, crazy ways. Over the weekend, he appeared at the Teaparty "Patriots" summit in Phoenix, Arizona and said among other things this completely false statement (video: peekURL.com/vNQNJUT ):

"I'm here to say thank you for standing up to the ruling class" [meaning: "liberal power brokers, guardians of the status quo and the royal triangle of greed: big government, big unions and big bailed-out businesses"]

In fact, the teapartiers are having their strings pulled by one set of the "ruling class", specifically the Koch family and those who fund Dick Armey of FreedomWorks. They're mostly pawns of one very wealthy group against another, and they aren't opposing the "ruling class" on issues where the "ruling class" is aligned.

No Teaparty "policy" (to the extent that they articulate specific policy ideas at all) would discomfort the "ruling class", and none of their actions would take on the "ruling class". If they wanted to actually take on the "ruling class", they'd highlight issues like immigration and trade rather than ignoring them or being on the wrong side [1]. And, instead of acting like children and waving loopy signs or playing dress-up, they'd find the few smart people among them to do things like question authority.

But, wait, there's much more and it gets crazy.

Now, Pawlenty has released the video below. It includes someone playing dress-up at :15 (the tricorner hat), a Gadsden flag at :22, and a "ram it down our throat/we'll shove it up your ass in November" sign at :25. Then, it gets even more nuts with portions of a Pawlenty speech:

"We, the people of the United States, will rise up again. We will take back our government. This is our country. Our Founding Fathers created it. Americans embraced it. Ronald Reagan personified it. And Lincoln stood courageously to protect it. Now as ever, this nation under God should have a new birth of freedom. Our government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. And America will remain the greatest country the world has ever known."

Memo to Pawlenty: we are not in a Red Dawn scenario. And, the idea that teapartiers are the only True Americans is implicitly anti-American: those who pretend to be True American Patriots think everyone else isn't a patriot. Pawlenty and his teaparty buddies are denying election results and are no better than those who used phrases like "pResident Bush". Of course, whether he actually believes any of this isn't clear. But, it's clear that he isn't fit to be president of the U.S. since he doesn't think that anyone who isn't in the teaparties is a legitimate American.

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[1] At the Teaparty "Patriots" conference in Arizona where Pawlenty spoke just 4% of their events were about immigration despite that state being the immigration epicenter in recent months. And, out of four panelists at one of those sessions, one was Ali Noorani and two others support comprehensive immigration reform. The position of the fourth is unknown.