"Face the Nation" transcripts, June 24, 2012: Gov. Perry, Gov. Pawlenty, Mayor Villaraigosa

Tim Pawlenty is the former Governor of Minnesota. He was a candidate for the Republican nomination himself before he left the race fairly early and endorsed Mitt Romney. He's in Salt Lake City this morning, and let me just start off with a question that you're probably not going to answer. If the President asked you to be his running mate, would you accept because I know you're on the short list?

TIM PAWLENTY (Former Minnesota Governor/Former Republican Presidential Candidate): Well, Bob, if the President asked me like your question in the case--

BOB SCHIEFFER: I'm sorry. (INDISTINCT)

TIM PAWLENTY: --to Barack Obama, I would say no.

BOB SCHIEFFER: All right. Point well taken. If-- if Governor Romney asked, what would you say?

TIM PAWLENTY: I have indicated that I think I can best serve Governor Romney in other ways in particular as a volunteer and surrogate speaker in places where he can't go. I've encouraged people who've asked this question to-- in the campaign to look at other prospects, but, obviously, anybody who would be asked to serve in a position like that would be honored to be asked. But I-- I really encourage folks to look at other prospects and to suggest I think I can help him best in other ways.

BOB SCHIEFFER: All right. You are one of what may be six, seven hundred maybe eight hundred Republicans that were out there in-- in Utah this weekend for a big retreat. They were all invited out by Governor Romney. What-- what is that about? Is it a fund-raising thing or what's that about?

TIM PAWLENTY: Well, what's it's about is this: when you're running for President of the United States you need a team of friends and family, supporters, donors, and as the campaign unfolds those people need to be informed and motivated and encouraged in their work. And so this was a gathering of some-- of Governor Romney's and Ann Romney's best friends and supporters and family members to give them a campaign update and a briefing, not just on the campaign but on issues, so that they feel informed and also can share that information with their networks and colleagues to get out the vote and get other people to support. So it's a kind of a rally, if you will, of some of his best supporters and a-- and a briefing on the issues with some of his best supporters.

BOB SCHIEFFER: How-- who pays for something like that? Does Governor Romney pick up the tab for that or does everybody pay their own way? How does that work?

TIM PAWLENTY: Well, I don't know the details, but I think everybody came at their own expense and paid their own expenses. There are some overhead, I'm sure, in putting out an event like this, but I don't think the Romney campaign paid for people's lodging or airfare and the like to get here.

BOB SCHIEFFER: Did-- did you have to give a certain amount of money to the campaign to get invited?

TIM PAWLENTY: I think this was a group of his best donors, and so I think there were some requirements or donation levels that you had to have met to be invited to this but there are other similar campaign events in the form of rallies and other meetings all around the country all the time for donors and supporters. And it's-- Bob, it's a good thing. We want people on the team to be informed, motivated, encouraged, and to get out and try to do what they can to get Governor Romney elected President.

BOB SCHIEFFER: Let me ask you one more question about it. It's my understanding that the Super PACs that we have now, these independent groups that raise money people can give unlimited sums. They, as I understand it, are supposed to, by law, required to operate independently from the campaigns themselves, or supposed to be no coordination, yet I notice that Karl Rove, who runs one of the biggest PACs, maybe the biggest one, was out there at your conference and-- and spoke. Is that proper?

TIM PAWLENTY: It-- it is, indeed, proper because the line between the campaigns and these independent groups is that you can't coordinate about the expenditure of money. So you can talk all day long about issues, policy, general things like that. You just can't cross the line to say, now, you're going to spend it-- your money this way and we're going to spend our money that way. It's a little bit of an over-simplification. But that's the line and certainly that wasn't crossed here, nor will it be during this campaign.

BOB SCHIEFFER: Governor, let me ask you this: Do you think somewhere down the line, Governor Romney's going to have to get a little more specific? You know, for example, on--on-- on taxes, he-- he's pretty open about, he's ready to cut taxes, but he has not yet told us which of the deductions he'll eliminate, which of the loopholes he'll eliminate to pay for these tax cuts. When are we going to hear that?

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by historicalaccuracy June 24, 2012 4:09 PM EDT: I'm not sure that Perry is correct. The Bain attacks were ineffective in the Republican primary because the GOP is the party of freedom and generally believes that whatever works in business is to be praised. The country as a whole does not as uniformly praise amoral business practices, or outsourcing. There are plenty of people who would call businesses that outsource unpatriotic. Remember the old tradition of "buying American" when it came to big ticket items like cars.

Perry is one of the big three primary opponents to call Romney a habitual liar (Gingrich and Santorum were the others) who distorted their records. Good to see he now thinks Romney is more honest, or does he?:; Reply to this comment