“She gets frustrated with Tim, that he’s not as much ‘charge from the seat of your pants,’ and Tim looks at Michele and thinks she’s too seat of her pants,” said former Bachmann chief of staff Ron Carey, who chaired Minnesota’s Republican Party during four of Pawlenty’s years as governor. “There’s a little natural tension simply because of style, not of desired outcome.”…

A longtime Minnesota Republican operative who hasn’t taken sides but knows Pawlenty well and has a good relationship with Bachmann speculated that the former governor “would like to rip her lungs out right now.”

“He has planned it out methodically for years,” the operative said. “To see her, in his mind, recklessly come in, in a slapdash fashion, and ruin, potentially, his plans makes him insane to even think about,” the operative said…

“There’s not a fatalistic sense, but she’s sure a pain in the ass,” one Pawlenty insider said. “Three months ago we were hoping Michele was just a flash in the pan so, no doubt, we’ve had to sober up around the possibility that she could get in and beat him…Certainly it’s a blow to the gut.”