Rob Zerban

I asked one of the sharpest minds I know on Capitol Hill if there's a single issue facing Congress right now-- just one-- that separates conservatives from progressives. He didn't miss a beat: the Social Security Enhancement and Protection Act and the Strengthening Social Security. Act. Yesterday we had a guest post from the progressive candidate for the Maine Senate seat, Shenna Bellows, on the topic.

There are a lot of reasons I've grown to admire Alan Grayson over the years.

Last year, with no help from the DCCC (unless you want to consider negative help of Steve Israel calling wealthy donors and telling them to not "waste" their money on Rob Zerban), Rob Zerban came closer to defeating Paul Ryan than any Democrat had before. Ryan represents a swing district in southeast Wisconsin, WI-01 (Kenosha, Racine, Janesville, Muskego, Elkhorn and southern Milwaukee suburbs like Oak Creek and Greendale.

Martin Wolf's autopsy of Europe's Austerity Agenda for the New York Review of Books doesn't even mention Paul Ryan. But I hope Democrat Rob Zerban, who nearly beat Ryan in 2012 and will take him on again next year, is reading it and absorbing it.