Monday, May 23, 2011

Salaam Alaikum, Cousin

Twice in the past week, while paging through the Star Tribune, I did a double take when perusing articles about the situation in Syria.

Photo of Assad compared to photo of Tim Pawlenty
What was our former governor and newly minted presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty saying about Syria that was news-worthy?

Star Tribune article with photo of Bashar Assad
Oh, wait -- it's not Pawlenty, it's Bashar Assad, hereditary leader of Syria and long-lost cousin of TPaw. Side by side and feature for feature, I admit the resemblance is not as strong as I thought it was, but the similarity of visual gestalts was enough to confuse me.

And that's Minnesota me, who's been looking at pictures of Pawlenty for over eight years. If I get the two mixed up, what will others think? Is this the beginning of rumors that Pawlenty is a secret Muslim?

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