Pawlenty sips the Ryan Kool Aid

Tim Pawlenty had avoided saying he'd support Paul Ryan's budget plan, also known as the Road to Ruin.

But then he told Christiane Amanpour on <a href="http://blogs.abcnews.com/thenote/2011/05/tim-pawlenty-says-he-would-back-paul-ryans-medicare-plan.html">ABC's This Week </a> that while he will unveil his own budget plan during his presidential campaign:

“But if the only choice is we're doing nothing, like President Obama is doing and Paul Ryan's plan, I'd sign it.”

That is not the choice, of course. Obama and the Democrats will not propose doing nothing. Pawlenty is not the president, and not likely to be. Democrats will most likely continue to control the Senate, and won't be passing the Ryan budget anyway. So what he offered is meaningless.

But Pawlenty, trying to avoid endorsing the Ryan plan without alienating the right-wing Republicans who support it, and who threatened to tar and feather Newt Gingrich when he opposed it, has taken his first sip from the Ryan cup. Others will urge him to drink up.