Ryan chided for watching idly as Newt makes gains

Jennifer Rubin at the Washington Post's Right Turn blog writes to Paul Ryan and other prominent Republicans who have been watching the presidential race from the sidelines. She can understand them not running she says; that's hard to do and likely to fail, since only one person can win.

...And endorsing? Why that requires an expenditure of political capital, some risk taking. Your guy could lose, and there where would you be?

But here’s the thing: The voters in their infinite wisdom have just given a huge boost to perhaps the only GOP candidate who could shift the spotlight from President Obama to himself, alienate virtually all independent voters, lose more than 40 states and put the House majority in jeopardy...   

It seems, gentlemen, it’s time to get off your . . . er . . . time to get off the bench and into the game

It's especially hard to understand Ryan not speaking up about Gingrich (who is, of course, the candidate she was talking about, since it was the Newtster who trashed Ryan's pet plan to end Medicare, calling it "right-wing social engineering" before being forced to recant.

Read the rest of Rubin's letter here.

After Criticizing Ryan's Proposals - Gingrich Surges In Polls

Remember when Newt Gingrich let his guard down and called Paul Ryan’s budget proposal and plan to end Medicare exactly what it is - "right-wing social engineering?"

Union Leader Excerpt:
Sununu told reporters that when Gingrich earlier this year called U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan's entitlement reform provisions of the Republican budget plan “right-wing social engineering,” it was “an effort of self-aggrandizement” that undercut Ryan and was “the most self-serving, anti-conservative thing one can imagine.”

That's funny. Against all odds since then, Gingrich has been slowly gaining on the other so-called conservatives running for the gold in the GOP presidential primary. Actually, Gingrich is now considered the front-running candidate among the pack of ghouls that speak in favor of Ryan's frontal attack on seniors, even pulling way ahead of Mitt Romney.

Union Leader Excerpt:
Sununu said, “What he did to Paul Ryan is just the latest in a pattern of anti-principled actions that really irritated his own leadership and produced 88 percent of the Republicans voting for his reprimand” in 1997.

The above statements from the bombastic Sununu says it all. Why should Newt Gingrich or any presidential candidate care a rat's ass about Paul Ryan? Think about it. Who is Ryan? Second and even more telling, how could criticizing Ryan's proposal be self-aggrandizement if it's so good?

The truth is, they all know Ryan's budget proposals are fictional, unworkable, radical and vicious - you have to be a goose-stepping single-file Randroid to believe in them. You have to be trained and "principled." They're sympathetic to Ryan and defend him because he was the only one evil enough to propose such a dastardly plan. They wouldn't dare propose the same so they translate Ryan's ideologically engineered insanity as courage. I'm guessing here that Gingrich isn't one of them.

Union LeaderExcerpt:
He said Gingrich's occasional “off-the-cuff” comments are “a reflection of the off-the-cuff thinking that he goes through to deal with the issues and that is not what you want in the commander-in-chief.”

People want to hear the truth and they know the truth when they hear it. Gingrich spoke the truth when he called Ryan's proposals "right-wing social engineering." Everyone knows that. When a politician like Sununu thinks telling the truth is not what people want in a commander-in-chief, I highly doubt it. But that statement should give pause and further thought about the truthfulness of the GOP candidates Sununu did not direct that statement at. Sununu should back-fire in their faces.

The best part is Romney, Sununu and rest of the cast of Ryan defenders don't know what to do next. They were going to bombard Gingrich with more garbage and venom aimed at drawing a greater contrast between themselves and the former House Speaker. But the
latest report out of Politico shows somebody may have connected Newt's surge to his criticism of Ryan so Romney skipped several chances to attack Newt Gingrich on Friday — an abrupt change to his campaign’s aggressive approach to draw that contrast.

But this is funny. They’re trying to undermine Newt Gingrich, not that I care, but the fact that Gingrich has surged past Romney seems to have gotten their underwear all bunched up. THEY were the ones preparing to aggrandize themselves by resurrecting Paul Ryan's proposals, but now they're not so sure. Yet, they accuse Newt of self-aggrandizement because he derided Ryan's proposals.

In the meantime, Gingrich surges ahead. Beauuutiful.

Sidenote: The Janesville Gazette, Ryan's hometown newspaper, published a mainstream media version of this story in the local section of the print copy. As of this posting, they have not opened the article to the Web for open commenting. Are they worried about self-aggrandizing constituents or protecting their political endorsement?

The Most Unpopular Politician in America Award Goes To -

Drum Roll Please! And the winner is - Wisconsin\'s own Paul Ryan (R-Wall St).

Democrats are winning the messaging war on Rep. Paul Ryan’s bid to overhaul Medicare, with a new Bloomberg poll finding 57 percent of Americans believe they would be worse off under his plan.

Only 34 percent said they would be better off if Congress replaced “traditional Medicare” with a program to purchase private insurance with government subsidies, as Ryan has proposed.

The poll also found Ryan is now the nation’s third most disliked Republican, with net unfavorable ratings that trail only former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. But more than half surveyed said they have no opinion of the Wisconsin Republican.

Sure he lost out to Newt Gingrich and Sarah Palin, but they are not really politicians anymore, they are just carnival shrills trying to cash in on their fleeting fame. paul ryan is the most unpopular sitting politician in America. While more than half of America does not know who he is, to know him is to dislike him! Just think, this is the guy who Alberta Darling hails as a hero.

Cross posted at Blogging Blue.

Newt Still Tap Dancing

After Newt Gingrich made the serious mistake last week of telling the truth, Wall St.'s golden boy Paul Ryan was not amused! The Wall st. Money machine kicked into high gear in an "end Newt's career" maneuver that made even the Mafia take note. Newt trying to save his political life, even went on TV and said he did not say what he said and if you show video of me saying what I said it is a lie because I did not say that. (yes the world of Newt Gingrich is very confusing).

Newt was on "Face the Nation" and Washington veteran Bob Schieffer made the mistake of trying to figure it all out.

H/T Think Progress

Gingrich struggled while trying to claim that he and Ryan are on one side, and President Obama on the other.

“I wasn’t referring to Ryan,” Gingrich pleaded. Host Bob Schieffer then played a clip of Gingrich on Meet the Press last week, in which Gingrich explicitly said Ryan’s plan was “too big a jump.” Caught in a trap of his own making, Gingrich could only say that Ryan’s plan is a “big plan that needs to be worked through.”

Schieffer wasn’t buying what Gingrich was trying to sell, because it made no sense.

Now Paul Ryan has added destroying politicians careers to his resume, along with devastating the 1st Congressional District of Wisconsin.

Ryan's Right Wing Social Engineering Roils His Party

Ryan calls it his "cause"-- and now ending Medicare is the new GOP litmus test.

Newt forced to apologize for telling the truth about Ryan's budget

The truth hurts, especially when you're a Republican presidential candidate calling Paul Ryan's budget plan "radical" -- after almost every Republican in the House has already voted for it. Newt's doing his best to put the truth genie back in the bottle, and now says he would have voted for the Ryan budget. That may help him with GOP kingmakers, but it won't help him with the voters, who agree with his first assessment. Politico reports:

Gingrich finally seemed to realize the seriousness of his political plight Tuesday, when he held three conference calls, made a personal apology to House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan and admitted in a Fox News appearance: “I made a mistake.”

“The fact is that I have supported what Ryan’s trying to do on the budget,” Gingrich told Greta Van Susteren. “The budget vote is one that I am happy to say I would have voted for.”

More here.

Paul "Radical" Ryan

This weekend sleazy Republican Presidential candidate Newt Gingrich was on Meet The Press discussing his "presidential" run and when asked about Paul Ryan's called him a radical.

“I don’t think right-wing social engineering is any more desirable than left-wing social engineering,” Gingrich scoffed in an interview on NBC's "Meet the Press."

House Republicans, including Speaker John A. Boehner, have stood behind Ryan's plan, which was the subject of fierce debate at town-hall meetings nationwide. Other Republican presidential contenders have praised Ryan's political courage without going so far as to endorse the budget blueprint.

Gingrich later called the reform plan “too big a jump,” adding: “I’m against Obamacare, which is imposing radical change, and I would be against a conservative imposing radical change.”

Just to be clear, Paul Ryan is too radical for one of the worst most radical politicians in our lifetime. Nice.

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By the way, Rob Zerban is running for Congress against Paul Ryan! It is time for the 1st Congressional district to finally have representation in Congress!