They Couldn't Help Themselves: McCain campaign leaks selection of Tim Pawlenty as VP nominee

**UPDATE: 10:48 pm - AOL's Political Machine blog states reporting unequivocally that Pawlenty is the nominee. Culture War quotes anonymous sources inside McCain Communications Staff and RNC as saying "95 percent sure" it's Pawlenty. Remember that sourcing, because McCain's sure to deny that his communication staff leaked the nomination tonight. And he'll be lying.

Despite the McCain camp swearing on their mothers that they wouldn't release a VP choice tonight -- the Obama camp already having compared such a low-blow to "political malpractice" -- it appears they've leaked it anyway, in a very sly way. Minneapolis Star-Tribune reports that Gov. Tim Pawlenty has cancelled all his Thursday interviews and returned to Minnesota; Huffington Post reports he's also been booked on Meet The Press this Sunday. The influential Republican blog Red State claims to have spoken to an unnamed McCain aide who said that the VP nom would "more likely than not" be Pawlenty -- the aide then reportedly added, with typocal Republican hypocrisy, that they really didn't want this news leaking tonight. Which of course is exactly why he said what he just said.

Earlier today, David Bernstein reported on Pawlenty's rebuttal speech in Denver: "yet another Republican with no foreign policy experience [who questions] Barack Obama's experience and judgment to be commander-in-chief."