Wisconsin

Friday Paul Krugman was reminiscing in The Times about the promise the Ryan-led Republicans would "move their party off its cruel and mindless agenda of tax cuts for the rich and pain for the poor, bringing back the intellectual seriousness that supposedly used to characterize the conservative movement." He points out that not only did that never happen but

One of the biggest shocks of the 2016 election was Trump winning Wisconsin. He was the first Republican to win the state since 1984 when Reagan was reelected, defeating Walter Mondale 54.19% to 45.02%. Since then, Michael Dukakis beat George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton won both times he ran, Al Gore beat George W. Bush, John Kerry beat George W.

Shockingly, the DCCC doesn't recruit union activists to run for Congress any longer; quite the contrary. They have demonstrated for over a decade that they would rather recruit an "ex"-Republican or a wealthy self-funding careerist than someone who understands the concept of worker solidarity.

Have you been enjoying DWT the last few weeks? I’ve been writing it from Paris. I just got home. It’s tough to write 5 posts a day while you’re on vacation... in Paris! But I rented a beautiful old townhouse in Montmartre from a French writer and the house is filled with books and art and writer vibes and my office was right off a huge, second story veranda with a fantastic hanging garden where birds were frolicking like they owned the place. Anyway, I just got home and I want to continue the momentum we’ve helping to build for Randy Bryce.

That’s an old Blue America radio spot we ran against Paul Ryan at some point in the distant past. As you may know, Randy Bryce isn’t the first Democrat to go up against Ryan. In 2000, 2002, 2004 and 2006 Ryan's Democratic challenger was Jeffrey Thomas, a retired orthopedic surgeon from Ryan's hometown of Janesville. The Ryan-friendly Thomas' only issue for his first three runs was healthcare and he never quite cracked a third of the vote, but in 2006 he ran against Ryan's shady relationship with Republican corruptionists Jack Abramoff and Tom DeLay and went all the way to 37%.

Monday, Randy Bryce launched his campaign to repeal and replace Paul Ryan in a southeast Wisconsin district the DCCC has always made clear to Democrats was “off the table.” That’s where Randy lives and a bunch of political hacks in DC claiming his district is “off the table,” isn’t going to stop him for a minute. The fish rots from the head and if Trump can’t be held accountable until 2020, Speaker Ryan’s time is now. And Randy is the exact right person to do just that.

We started DWT a dozen years ago... the spring of 2005. Back then we used to do one post a day. But that only lasted a few months and since then we haven't had a day with just one post in over a decade-- not while I was in a jeep driving around the trackless wastes of Mali on the way to Timbuktu nor while I was laying in a hospital bed (blogging while I was drugged up and attached to industrial speed machinery), getting an experimental full stem cell transplant, and irrespective how big and crucial any one news story ever was. But rules are made to be broken.

Antonin Scalia once wrote that "Political gerrymanders are not new to the American scene" and noted there were allegations that Patrick Henry attempted, unsuccessfully, to gerrymander James Madison out of the First Congress.

The GOP has worked to denigrate Pelosi for over a decade. Nationally her approval rating is an abysmal 30%-- with 50% disapproving of her. That's godawful! It has made her a liability for many Democratic candidates. But you know who's even more disliked-- and with no set-up by the Democrats? Flimflam Speaker Paul Ryan.

There are 16 House Democrats with perfect scores from ProgressivePunch for the current session-- a score of 100. One, Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) is a freshman, which means her lifetime crucial vote score is also 100. The other freshmen with eye-popping great scores are Jamie Raskin (D-MD), Adriano Espaillat (D-NY) and Ro Khanna (D-CA).