Grothman

Nationally, Republicans have, by and large but with a few exceptions, fought against Democratic governors trying to protect their states' residents from the worst of the pandemic. But no Republican-dominated state legislature has been more pro-COVID than Wisconsin's. They have worked hard-- and effectively-- to prevent Gov. Tony Evers, a very moderate Democrat, from instituting rules to keep the state safe. The Republicans have given Wisconsin 36,448 cases of the disease-- 6,260 cases per Wisconsinite. On Saturday there were 926 new cases reported (and 7 new deaths).

Wisconsin's deadly job killing duo, Grothman and RyanSometimes when Congress wants to pass embarrassing legislation they're not eager for opponents or just constituents to track down, they give it an innocuous or misleading name. It happens constantly and it happened on Thursday just before the Republicans adjourned the House for the year.

This morning, Boehner-- once banished from the GOP leadership for handing out bribery checks on behalf of tobacco lobbyists on the floor of the House (see video above)-- was elected to his third term as Speaker of the House. "I'll never di it again," whined Boehner, when caught. "It's a bad practice; we ought to stop this." In 1923, another 3-term Republican Speaker, Frederick Gillett (R-MA), was elected Speaker for the last time.

Tom Petri has been the most mainstream of Wisconsin's 5 conservative congressmen. First elected in 1979, he's generally considered a "moderate" in Congress and has been part of Steve Israel's Center Aisle caucus of Blue Dogs and mainstream Republicans. This has also guaranteed that he wouldn't face any serious challenges from Democrats while Israel ran the DCCC.