Gail Collins on "T-Paw"

Pawlenty Makes The NY Times

It's always a kick when a national columnist takes a poke at local, Minnesota politician.

In this case, The New York Times' Gail Collins has a little fun in her column this morning contrasting Governor Tim Pawlenty's angry, "red meat" rhetoric to conservatives with his decidedly mild manner -- and not-so-fearsome nickname, "T-Paw" ("The Wages of Rages").

Except that I'm not aware of anyone who actually calls him that (admittedly, I'm not exactly in the Governor's inner circle).

Sort of like people who've never lived in the Bay Area referring to San Francisco as "Frisco" (the locals refer to it simply as "the city").

P.S.: sure glad no one told Collins that the state university's mascot is a gopher. Make that "golden gopher."