Plenty of Excuses

I keep reading letters to the editor and quoted remarks by friends and of associates of Gov. Tim Pawlenty about how he is such a stand-up guy. They say he is honest, highly ethical, sharp, astute at business and law and so forth. Pawlenty is supposed to be so smart about business and legal dealings that Elam Baer's Access Anywhere pay-phone company paid Pawlenty $60,000 for part-time legal and business advice while he was running for governor.

Yet today we find out that Mr. Tim the Brilliant Lawyer did not file a legally-required registration for any company giving legal advice. Yesterday, Mr. Tim the Brilliant Businessman blamed his mistake in filing a financial disclosure on a "confusing form" and bad advice from his tax accountant.

That sure doesn't sound very brilliant to us.