The derision for Nobel winner Obama is piling deep on the right (and not a few lefties are allowing that it might be a little early for the honor). But I was struck by the response from two Republican presidential candidates.

There’s the perpetually petulant Mike Huckabee, who whines while saying he’s not (undoubtedly pissed that the prez is going to score $1.4 million):

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There will be an outcry from those on the right who will say that Obama’s nomination, made two weeks into his Presidency, is impossible to justify but I think such an outcry will sound like right-wing whining. The better response is simply to allow those on the left to explain what he did in his first two weeks as President that merited such recognition.

Then there’s Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty:

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During Pawlenty’s Friday morning WCCO radio show, “Lou from St. Paul” called in to say: “I haven’t heard you congratulate the president on receiving the Nobel Prize….What is it you’re waiting for?”

Pawlenty responded: “Regardless of the circumstances, anytime somebody wins a Nobel Prize I think an appropriate response is to say, ‘Congratulations’.”

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… Pawlenty added that he was “struggling” with the question over whether the prize was awarded more for process than results.

Meanwhile, Laurie Masterson, Fayetteville school library book cleanser and teabagger-in-chief in NWA, has gone nuts on the Nobel. Tweets from her Twitter feed in less than an hour:

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