Wisconsin

You probably read yesterday that Tom Petri (R-WI) will be formally announcing on Monday that he will be retiring from Congress at the end of this year. He just doesn't have it in him to fight off right-wing extremist Glenn Grothman, the union-hating kook who wants to abolish weekends. Grothman doesn't live in Petri's district, but part of his own state senatorial district is part of WI-06, Petri's district.

Everybody likes inoffensive, friendly, old Tom Petri, right? He's the 4th most senior Republican in the House-- having beaten Tommy Thompson for an open GOP seat back in 1979. His central Wisconsin district is a swing district that leans red. Obama eked out the narrowest of victories there in 2008 and lost to Romney in 2012.

Over the weekend, E.J. Dionne suggested in the Washington Post that Democratic Party strategists are blowing the 2014 midterm cycle. "Listlessness is bad politics. Defensiveness is poor strategy. And resignation is never inspiring."

Our friends at PCCC have been very enthusiastic about Ashland City Councilwoman, an economic populist taking on Republican backbencher Sean Duffy in WI-07. The gigantic district takes up most of the northern part of the state and a good chunk of the central core as well.

I hope you saw Grayson's epic take down of the Koched up Keystone Pipeline project yesterday.

You've probably read that Paul Ryan's plan to screw over military families with cuts to compensation and pensions has been backfiring, making the apostle of Randian greed and selfishness even more toxic than he's been in the past.

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.

By Ian Millhiser | Think Progress | October 22, 2013

Palin's not happy with the Republican Party Establishment-- and she claims she may be ready to bolt and start one of her own. No one represents that Establishment better than Paul Ryan. Ryan's a packaged product, courtesy of Wall Street and Madison Avenue.

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.