Tim Pawlenty Jokes Republicans Can Learn From Tiger Woods' Wife

Minnesota's Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty spoke to the annual Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington on Friday morning. Pawlenty, a favorite of the conservative base and a likely presidential candidate in 2012, used the opportunity to criticize President Obama's handling of the economy and national security and to articulate how Republicans could do better.

As he began his remarks, however, the usually demure Pawlenty joked about Tiger Woods' predicament to make a point about the direction of the Republican Party.

"I think we can learn a lot from that situation, not from Tiger, but from his wife," Pawlenty said. "She said, 'I've had enough.' She said, 'No more.' I think we should take a page out of her playbook and take a nine iron and smash the window out of big government. We've had enough."

For the record, Woods issued a public apology in Florida moments after Pawlenty spoke in Washington. Woods talked at length about the people he had let down, and addressed the rumors that his wife attacked him with a golf club on Thanksgiving night, as Pawlenty said.

"Elin has never hit me, that night or any other night," Woods said. "There has never been an episode of domestic violence in our marriage, ever. . . . Elin deserves praise, not blame."

Democrats, always keen to attack any of the Republicans' 2012 contenders, pounced on Pawlenty's surprisingly off-color remark. Brad Woodhouse, communications director for the Democratic National Committee, said, "Tim Pawlenty today said that the country should take a nine iron to the government -- but instead all he did today was take a nine iron to his own credibility."