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Suspect Sheen?  

Governor Tim “The Smiling Face Of Pain” Pawlenty of Minnesota shocked assembled Republican governors last week with his bold assertion that endless Reagan regurgitation might not be the path back to power.

To demonstrate his loyalty to the legend,  Pawlenty claimed he was Gobbed For the Gipper.

“We all grew up in the age of Reagan,” he said. “I passed out fliers for him; I got spat on by hippies. But he was president a long time ago.”

Where did all this airborne hatred spring from?  Pawlenty turned 21 the year Reagan became President,  and didn’t hold public office until he joined the Eagan Minnesota city council in 1991.

Assuming that he was a precocious south suburban lad going into the Twin Cities to harass the scruffies for Reagan, when did this rendezvous with moisture take place? Did the chill winds of the North Country preserve  sixties leftovers so they might spring into action against young Tim far into the eighties?

The fogginess of the tale and distance in time recall the great myth of the Vietnam War,  the claims returning troops were spat on at arrival airports.

The story congealed in Rambo’s claim, speaking lines in a screenplay, that he was spat on, and got legs with Bob Greene’s “Wipe the spit from my heart” epic Homecoming.

Vietnam veteran Jerry Lembcke’s Spitting Image: Myth, Memory, and the Legacy of Vietnam says it never happened!

“The stories besmirch the reputation of the anti-war movement and help construct an alibi for why we lost the war: had it not been for the betrayal by liberals in Washington and radicals in the street, we could have defeated the Vietnamese. The stories also erase from public memory the image, discomforting to some Americans, of Vietnam veterans who helped end the carnage they had been part of. “

We can only hope Pawlenty’s presence in the Republican comeback attempt keeps this tale before the public so the damp details can be nailed down.