Ryan to endorse consevatives in primaries; What's that mean for Tommy Thompson?

 The Daily Caller reports:

Republican House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan says he’s on a mission to help elect “more conservatives in Congress to save the country” and plans to endorse in congressional races where there are “clear cut cases between reformers and career people.”

“We’re going to try to get behind people who are coming here to save the country and fight for limited government and economic freedom,” Ryan said in an interview with The Daily Caller about his political action committee, Prosperity PAC.

In a memo obtained by TheDC, the Wisconsin congressman plans to ask supporters to donate to his Prosperity PAC to help elect members of Congress “who aren’t afraid to make the tough, but necessary, decisions to secure our fiscal future, and, when necessary.”

In Wisconsin, what will that mean for Tommy G. Thompson, the career politician who is the most moderate candidate in a Republican U.S. Senate primary that includes Mark Neumann and Jeff Fitzgerald, both well to the right of Thompson. Fitzgerald's announcement used Ryan's template and the same buzz words:

"In Wisconsin I led the Assembly to a balanced budget in face of fierce opposition from the status quo," Fitzgerald said in a statement. "I would be honored to lead a new reform movement in Washington."

Thompson already has drawn fire -- and negative television commercials -- from the national right wing Club for Growth organization, which finds him far too liberal. Will Ryan join the right wingers trashing Tommy? Or will he duck an endorsement, as he's doing in the race for the GOP presidential nomination, saying his fund-raising role for the party keeps him from expressing his opinion?

That's not what a courageous conservative would do, is it?

Ryan's Medicare plan poses real problem for Wisconsin GOP Senate candidates

Paul Ryan opted out of running for Herb Kohl's Senate seat next year. But he left a little something behind. His Medicare plan -- to end Medicare as we know it and replace it with a type of voucher plan that would cost seniors more -- is very much going to be a part of the 2012 Senate race in Wisconsin.

The problem for GOP candidates, who are fighting in the primary to win the party's conservative base, is that while Republican voters tend to like Ryan's plan, most other voters don't. It will take some careful positioning to finesse the problem Ryan has created for them.

Craig Gilbert .in the Journal Sentinel:

Here’s a brief look at what two Republican Senate hopefuls – declared candidate Mark Neumann and all-but-official candidate Tommy Thompson – are saying on this subject at the very outset of the race.  

Medicare is “driving us into bankruptcy,” Thompson said in a recent interview with the Journal Sentinel. The former governor and health secretary says “Paul Ryan is on the right track,” but stops short of fully endorsing the Ryan plan, which would end the guaranteed Medicare benefit for future beneficiaries (people now under 55) and replace it with a lump sum payment to help them buy private insurance. Thompson hasn’t put out his own Medicare plan yet (he’s not a declared candidate). 

But he says he would so some things differently than Ryan. He says people now under 55 should be given a choice when they reach eligibility. They could choose private insurance with a government subsidy (as Ryan is proposing). Or they could remain in the current Medicare system, but with higher-out-of-pocket costs than seniors pay now because the system “is going broke.”

He calls his approach “Ryan Plan Plus.”  

“Medicare is going broke, which will result in dramatically higher out-of-pocket costs for services. People will choose the private insurance option. A market-based solution like this will win out over government-run health care, which I’ve always opposed,” he said. That sounds like Thompson is endorsing Ryan’s shift to a much more privatized Medicare system for future retirees, without formally ending traditional Medicare.  

Neumann, businessman and former congressman, said he’ll produce a broad fiscal plan that addresses Medicare later in the campaign. Like Thompson, he says he’s supportive of Ryan but will offer his own set of policies. “We will be using parts of Paul’s plan … including on Medicare, but it may be different in some respects,” said Neumann.  

Though Neumann is running full-bore against government spending and deficits, he comes across as more guarded on the subject of Medicare than Thompson does. He emphasizes the need to look at other entitlements besides Medicare and Social Security, such as Medicaid. He says he agrees with Ryan’s argument that current Medicare policies are fiscally unsustainable in future decades. But Neumann says his campaign will focus more on the immediate and near-term budget crisis, because if that isn’t solved, “our long-term problem problems don’t make any difference.” 

We’ll have to wait for his plan, but he did little in the interview to signal that big Medicare changes will be a prominent feature of his campaign.

Of course, Neumann doesn't need to prove his conservative bona fides. It's former governor Tommy T who's getting flak about being too liberal for 21st Century Republicanism.

Maybe to prove himself Tommy will come out to the right of Neumann on Medicare and Social Security. But that could kill him in November.

This little dance could be fun for Democrats to watch.

Dreams Shattered, Ryan Faces Reality And Pulls Out Of Senate Race

Ryan, who has publicly admitted that his devotion to the dark, dystopian ideas of Ayn Rand were the inspiration for his political career, said his "cause" was embodied in the budget that has been overwhelmingly rejected by the public and threatens to sink the Republican Party. It has also sunk Ryan's real "cause." He's always told intimates that his quest for the White House ran through the Senate. Herb Kohl's retirement was exactly what he was looking for. Until his budget bit him in the ass.

This morning he started telling supporters that he's facing reality and giving up his Senate dreams... at least for now. Tommy Thompson, who was once popular in the state but would probably lose a tough primary, let alone a serious general, is running. Ryan is not.

Ryan began informing close friends of his decision Tuesday. Three GOP sources tell National Journal as soon as Ryan officially announces he won't run for the Senate, former Wisconsin GOP Gov. Tommy Thompson, is expected to announce his candidacy for the Senate seat being vacated by Democratic Sen. Herb Kohl, who recently announced he was retiring.

Thompson, who served as President George W. Bush's Health and Human Services Secretary, has told GOP officials in Wisconsin and D.C. he intends to run if Ryan passes up the open Kohl seat. Ryan has made it clear in recent days he prefers his perch as chairman of the House Budget Committee-- where he believes he can influence, if not drive, the debate on fiscal policy-- to a seat in the Senate.

In other words, it will still be up to Kenosha County Supervisor to end the political career of the worst dangerous for American working families face from DC. You can help Ron at Stop Paul Ryan.

UPDATE: Krugman Kicks More Dirt In Ryan's Face

This shouldn't surprise anyone who follows the Nobel Prize winning economist's blog or columns but this morning reiterated that "Ryan turns out to be an empty suit, parroting the usual line... there’s no there there (and there never was)."