Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R) made the rounds in Washington on Wednesday, spreading his message of the GOP’s need to embrace “Sam’s Club” Republicanism.

That approach is an enduring theme of the second-term governor’s past campaigns, and he sought to offer it as a cure for the Republican Party’s current woes on the national scene. He spoke in front of GOPAC on Wednesday morning and the National Press Club over lunch.

“Sam’s Club Republicans feel like they’ve been disenfranchised,” he said.

When asked what the Bush administration had done wrong, Pawlenty stressed that the party had gotten away from a focus on ideas, like the Contract with America.

“ 'Compassionate conservatism’ has to be about more than a label,” he said. “The idea factory has been less robust than it should have been.”

Specifically, Pawlenty emphasized a new approach to education. He said it is a “near-scandal” that higher education isn’t properly preparing students to be teachers, and he advocated online courses as the cost- and time-efficient education of the future.

Pawlenty also played the role of pit bull for McCain, defending the Arizona senator’s controversial ad featuring Paris Hilton and Britney Spears as a legitimate questioning of Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-Ill.) credentials.

He criticized an Obama ad that references the Democratic candidate’s work across the aisle with Republican Sen. Richard Lugar (Ind.) on rounding up loose nuclear weapons.

“His oratory is one of, ‘We’re going to tackle big national issues,’ but you look at his record, and there’s not one issue of major national concern that he has led the effort,” Pawlenty said, adding: “Who’s against rounding up loose nukes?”

He also had fun with all the speculation surrounding his potential running-mate status. He began his speech at the National Press Club by saying he was going to pre-emptively address the one big question on people’s minds: “I don’t have any particular insights into where Brett Favre is going to play,” he said of the Green Bay Packers quarterback.

At the end of his speech, when asked in a question-and-answer session about what characteristics a vice president should possess, Pawlenty offered a laugh-inducing one-word answer: “Discretion.”