Newt Was Right About One Thing: Paul Ryan's Plan Is Right Wing Social Engineering

The big Ryan news today might have been how he's running around the country endorsing right-wing candidates who back his plan to end Medicare and make the tax system even more skewered towards the wealthy. Pete Hoekstra (R-MI) got the kiss of death against teabagger Clark Durant in the GOP primary this morning. But in terms of real importance, the video above, ultimately, will mean far more.

Have you ever visited Stop Paul Ryan? It's the page Blue America uses to try appeal for contributions to help defeat the most dangerous Member of Congress. We just switched out an old Blue America ad with the video above. That video was released by Rob Zerban's campaign yesterday-- Rob the first plausible candidate to have ever run against Ryan since he was first elected in 1998. The DCCC has given Ryan a free pass-- more than a free pass; they have consistently sabotaged every good candidate who has tried to run against him, fixing the primary process so that Ryan would wind up with absurd primary opponents like John Heckenlively who was unable to raise any money against Ryan's massive Wall Street warchest-- and wound up with 30% of the vote.

Oh, so it must be a deep red district, useless to even try in, right? That's what the DCCC has tried very hard to help Ryan get across. But it's anything but a deep red district. It's a true swing district and, in fact, Obama beat McCain there in 2008 51-48%. (And that was while Ryan was racking up a 64% win without breaking a sweat.) Last year Ryan raised $3,922,760, while the candidate the DCCC installed-- and then never helped at all-- raised $12,066.

This year, all that is changing. Kenosha County Supervisor Rob Zerban has the very energized Wisconsin Democratic Party behind him and he's running a real grassroots campaign-- and a very effective one. Zerban sums it up pretty simply himself: "The Republican Party, led by Paul Ryan, is on a destructive mission to destroy the middle class. The sad truth is, Ryan's ideas have led Congress and our economy nowhere. Unlike Paul Ryan, I have real business experience and do not believe in trickle down economics." Please watch that video up top again. And then keep this in mind-- the spread between Ryan's 68% of the vote last year and Heckenlively's 30% was 38 points. The new poll that is being released tomorrow shows that the spread between Ryan and Zerban is 6 points. Think about that for a second. And then help us close that gap.