The Hill News

Veteran GOP strategist John Weaver took on two of his party's top presidential contenders, suggesting Mitt Romney's a political shape-shifter and calling Tim Pawlenty a "nice guy" who "pretend[s] that he's angry."

Weaver, who's helping to lead former Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman's (R) presidential campaign, dished on Romney and Pawlenty, two of the candidates who pose the biggest obstacle to Huntsman's bid for the Republican nomination.

"What version are we on now?" Weaver asked of Romney in an interview with Esquire. "Mitt 5.0? 6.0?"

Of Pawlenty, Weaver said: "Tim's a nice guy ... and there's nothing worse than seeing a nice guy pretend that he's angry. Is that really what we want to be? Is that how we're going to defin! e ourselves? When's the last time an angry man ever solved a problem without using a gun?"

Weaver's a veteran of Sen. John McCain's (R-Ariz.) 2008 presidential campaign, as are many of Huntsman's advisers. He had a tough assessment of where the Republican Party stands today, too.

"There's a simple reason our party is nowhere near being a national governing party," he said. "No one wants to be around a bunch of cranks."