The future face of the GOP?

Erik Kain

Erik writes about video games at Forbes and politics at Mother Jones. He's the contributor of The League though he hasn't written much here lately. He can be found occasionally composing 140 character cultural analysis on Twitter.

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11 Responses

  1. mike farmer says:

    Quick, have him castrated!Report

  2. I saw Ryan speak on election night coverage back in November and was very impressed…which means he will be caught with a stripper/secret gay lover/buying crack before he can ever make it to national glory.Report

  3. Neil says:

    Wow, that was really impressive. A Republican in a five minute clip without mentioning the words “pork,” “earmark,” or “socialized medicine.”Report

  4. Neil says:

    I was getting around to using a verb in the second sentence, but was too lazy to do so.Report

  5. Lev says:

    Don’t get too excited–Ryan was behind the Republican April Fools “alternate budget”. And somehow I doubt Austrian economic theories are the path back for the GOP.Report

  6. Charlie says:

    Here’s a link to Congressman Ryan’s website:

    http://www.house.gov/ryan/Report

  7. Michael Drew says:

    Ryan represents the district adjacent to mine. He’s a dink, but that’s just a personal reaction. He was the author of the version of the Republican budget alternative that actually had some numbers in it, but his version also made some pretty questionable leaps on projections, as described here:

    http://business.theatlantic.com/2009/04/paul_ryans_crazy_budget_graph.php

    And it has some interesting priorities (“Um the, the phrase goes like this: ‘Drill, BABY, drill!’ not ‘Drill, drill, drill!’ Morons.”) and tax proposals (25% rate on incomes from $100K to the sky):

    http://washingtonindependent.com/36862/paul-ryans-budget

    Granted, a lot of that probably increases his appeal to many here. I am assuming that chairman Van Hollen will be targeting the First next year — it should be an almost perfect bellwether for how Obama’s economic program has been received, as this sorry attempt at a takedown of Ryan in a Madison free weekly a couple months ago suggested: http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=25584.

    …I’m guessing Ryan’s attitude at the moment is “Bring. It. On.” as far as any stimulus vulnerability goes, but we’ll see where things stand in a year. It’s gonna be quite the battle.Report

  8. Clint says:

    Like Paul (of the Ron variety), Paul Ryan appears to be more about the message than the messenger. Despite the urging of most of the Republican Study Committee, he turned down the opportunity to challenge John Boehner for Minority Leader this year (I’d wager he had somewhere north of a 50-50 shot of winning). He also turned down the Ranking Member spot on the powerful Ways & Mean Committee to remain Ranking on the highly irrelevant ( but highly wonkish) debating society known as the Budget Committee.

    The other name that ought to be mentioned for greener pastures in the reformist wing of the party: Rep. Jeff Flake (AZ)Report