Pawlenty says his ‘political career has come to an end’

Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty says there are some good Republican candidates in the national pipeline for 2014 and 2016, but he’s not one of them.

U.S. News has a story in its Washington Whisper section about Pawlenty, quoting him as saying his “political career has come to an end,” and that his new big-bucks job as CEO of the Financial Services Roundtable isn’t a pathway to political office.

In the story, Pawlenty says:

“For the moment it looks like the Republican Party broadly has taken a hit because of the shutdown and the threat of not lifting the debt ceiling and potentially defaulting on financial obligations. But the elections are more than a year from now … People who say this means some kind of death knell to the Republican Party are overstating it.”