Aaron Sorkin doesn't like that Tim Pawlenty is stealing his lines

Republican presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty is a big fan of Aaron Sorkin. Unfortunately, he's chosen to model his truth-telling platform on Colonel Jessep from Sorkin's play-turned-Jack Nicholson-movie A Few Good Men. Sorkin is not pleased. Pawlenty said this to students of the University of Chicago earlier this week:

It's going to be the Jack Nicholson election. Some of you are probably too young to remember the movie A Few Good Men, but there's that famous line when he's on the witness stand and says, "You can't handle the truth." The American people, I think, can handle the truth.

Ugh, I don't know what's less appealing: Pawlenty describing the infamous scene with as much finesse as my father imitating Austin Powers or the fact that he's even using that line as part of his platform. Way to be an easy mix of cheesy and lame. Even Aaron Sorkin agrees, responding:

I appreciate the shout out from Governor Pawlenty, but I'm concerned because Isabel V. Sawhill, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institute, said that economic growth under the plan the Governor just proposed was "highly unlikely" and Michael Linden, the director of tax and budget policy for the Center for American Progress, called Mr. Pawlenty's plan "sheer fantasy." I don't know who's right, but we're going to need the truth whether we can handle it or not, and to arrive at the truth we're going to need a full-throated, high-minded debate among people considerably smarter than Colonel Jessep and me.

Swish. You just got Sorkin-ed.