Minnesota GOP wants Tim Pawlenty for Senate

Tim Pawlenty is out of the presidential race, but some say his political career isn’t over.
The Star Tribune reports that supporters say he’ll be back, perhaps in the 2012 U.S. Senate race, although Pawlenty denied that would happen. MinnPost says he’s also not interested in a vice president position.


The Star Tribune stated T-Paw “might have a better chance of victory in 2014, running against U.S. Sen. Al Franken, who eked out a close victory after a months-long recount,” and that he could also try a 2016 presidential run.


Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Times also looked ahead: “For Pawlenty, while his dreams of the White House in 2012 have been dashed, he still could have a future on the campaign trail for other candidates and possibly a cabinet post, ambassadorship or other role if President Obama is defeated.


For Pawlenty supporters, this weekend's Iowa straw poll results means the end of a promising national campaign. For local Republicans, it signals a possible beginning.


"Like my mom always used to say, things always work out for the best in the end, and maybe this is an opportunity for Minnesota," said Tony Sutton, chairman of the Minnesota Republican Party.


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Sutton said he hasn't talked to Pawlenty yet, but knows what he'll say when the time comes.


"Now that he's not running for president, I sure hope he'd consider running for U.S. Senate," said Sutton. "I think he'd make a heck of a candidate."


Just recently, Pawlenty dismissed the idea of running against incumbent U.S. Sen. Amy Kobuchar, who is up for re-election next year. Pawlenty's campaign did not respond to a request for comment on Sunday.


The most recent polling from Minnesota suggests that Klobuchar would be a tough opponent for any Republican, including Pawlenty, who trailed her by 13 points in a June PPP survey. Unlike Klobuchar, Pawlenty has long had mixed polling numbers of his own, with PPP giving him just a 40 percent favorable, 53 percent unfavorable rating last month. On Friday, he said he wouldn't run for Senate in 2012, though that was then he was still a presidential candidate.


If Pawlenty wants to be a senator, a better path might be waiting two years, going into the private sector and making some money, and then taking a crack at Sen. Al Franken in 2014.

Norway killer Anders Behring Breivik may have filmed his massacre

Anders Breivik may have filmed his shooting spree on Utoya island, it has emerged.

Police have begun looking for a camera after Oslo police lawyer Christian Hatlo said Breivik made references to having filmed his entire 72-hour massacre at a youth camp on July 22.

Breivik, 32, detonated a bomb outside government buildings in Oslo killing eight people, followed by a massacre at a youth camp on an island outside the capital where he shot dead 69 others.

'We have information from his manifesto and from earlier interrogations indicating that he did have a camera,' Mr Hatlo said.

He added evidence at Breivik's home suggested he had a camera and had intended to film the attacks.

'We are looking for his camera but have not found anything so far,' he said.

Police believe the camera may still be on Utoya and are scouring the island for it and other evidence.

Oslo police lawyer ­Christian Hatio said: “We have information from his manifesto and from interrogations that he had a camera. We are looking for his camera but have not found it so far.” Mr Hatio also rejected claims Breivik may have had accomplices when he blew up eight people in an Oslo government building before shooting dead 69 others at a youth camp on Utoya island. He added: “We, with a certain confidence, can say he was alone but we have not concluded yet. Nothing supports suspicion about other cells being involved, rather the opposite.”

Police adviser Asbjoern Rachlew described Breivik as “polite and co-operative” in interviews.

The gunman admits the killing spree and has appeared in court on terror charges. Psychiatrists are assessing whether he should be declared insane.

Breivik is in Ila jail where he is banned from receiving post, reading newspapers, watching TV or listening to radio.

Anders Behring Breivik Re-Enacts Shooting for Norwegian Police

Anders Behring Breivik, the Norwegian man who confessed to killing 69 people at an island youth camp has reconstructed his actions for police at the crime scene. Police said they took Breivik, 32, back to Utøya on Saturday for a hearing about the 22 July attacks, when he shot dozens of people dead on the island after killing eight people in Oslo with a bomb.


He described the killings in detail during an eight-hour trip to the island, prosecutor Paal-Fredrik Hjort Kraby said. "The suspect showed he wasn't emotionally unaffected by being back at Utøya … but didn't show any remorse," he added.


Images of the reconstruction published in the Norwegian daily VG show Breivik pretending to fire shots into the water where panicked teenagers had tried to escape on 22 July.


The hearing took place amid a security operation that aimed to avoid escape attempts by Breivik and protect him against potential avengers.


Breivik's lawyer said he has admitted to the attacks, but denies criminal guilt because he believes the massacre was necessary to save Norway and Europe from Muslims, and to punish politicians who have embraced multiculturalism.


Parts of the re-enactment were recorded and broadcast by the Norwegian media.


Police prosecutor Paal-Fredrik Hjort Kraby told Norwegian broadcaster NRK that Breivik was calm, cooperative and in control of whatever emotions he might have felt returning to the site of the crime.


"The suspect showed he was not unmoved by being back on Uyoya," Kraby said. "But he did not show any remorse for his actions."


Breivik has admitted to planning and committing the attack on Utoya, as well as the bomb attack a few hours prior that killed eight people in Oslo. His 1,500-page manifesto (large parts of which were plagiarized from the Unabomber's manifesto), posted on the Internet a few hours before the attacks, declared that his attacks were a declaration of war on Norwegian multiculturalism.


Breivik attacked Utoya because it was hosting a camp organized by the youth wing of the Labor party, Norway's governing coalition. The Labor party is pro-immigrant and pro-multicultural -- among the nearly 600 participants of the camp were children of immigrants who were interested in launching political careers.