Ryan's a rock star in Washington. But he's not playing so well at home, in southeast Wisconsin's 1st district. His spring recess tour on the towns was supposed to be a triumphal return of a hometown hero turned sudden celebrity. Instead, the tour has the feel of those dismal dates played by the aging rockers in the movie Spinal Tap.

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From The Nation

We know how Paul Ryan's playing in Washington.
 
But how's he playing in Kenosha?
 
That's the question that will be answered today as the House Budget Committee chair makes a rare visit to the city that lost an auto plant and much of the rest of its industrial base under watch of the free-trade supporting congressman.
 
It could be a rude awakening for Wall Street's favorite son.

Ryan's gotten used to the limelight in Washington, where he has successfully peddled the fantasy that "America is broke." The Republican point-man on fiscal matters had even got some Democrats buying into a debate about how to slash the federal deficit that has as its endgame not a balanced budget but the radical restructuring of Medicare and Medicaid and the beginning of a process of privatizing Social Security.

Ryan's comfortable with the cheers from pundits and political allies, and the undue respect afforded his extreme notions by media outlets that aren't very good at covering two things: economics and politics. He was even invited to present the Republican response to the State of the Union address (only to be upstaged by the even-more factually challenge Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, R-Presidential Wannabee.)

Ryan's a rock star in Washington.

But he's not playing so well at home, in southeast Wisconsin's 1st district.

His spring recess tour on the towns was supposed to be a triumphal return of a hometown hero turned sudden celebrity. Instead, the tour has the feel of those dismal dates played by the aging rockers in the movie Spinal Tap.

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Authors Bio:

John Nichols, a pioneering political blogger, has written the Online Beat since 1999. His posts have been circulated internationally, quoted in numerous books and mentioned in debates on the floor of Congress.


Nichols writes about politics for The Nation magazine as its Washington correspondent. He is a contributing writer for The Progressive and In These Times and the associate editor of the Capital Times, the daily newspaper in Madison, Wisconsin. His articles have appeared in the New York Times, Chicago Tribune and dozens of other newspapers.


Nichols is a frequent guest on radio and television programs as a commentator on politics and media issues. He was featured in Robert Greenwald's documentary, "Outfoxed," and in the documentaries Joan Sekler's "Unprecedented," Matt Kohn's "Call It Democracy" and Robert Pappas' "Orwell Rolls in his Grave." The keynote speaker at the 2004 Congress of the International Federation of Journalists in Athens, Nichols has been a featured presenter at conventions, conferences and public forums on media issues sponsored by the Federal Communications Commission, the Congressional Progressive Caucus, Consumers International, the Future of Music Coalition, the AFL-CIO, the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, the Newspaper Guild [CWA] and dozens of other organizations.


Nichols is the author of the upcoming book The Genius of Impeachment (The New Press), as well as a critically-acclaimed analysis of the Florida recount fight of 2000, Jews for Buchanan (The New Press) and a best-selling biography of Vice President Dick Cheney, Dick: The Man Who is President (The New Press), which has recently been published in French and Arabic. He edited Against the Beast: A Documentary History of American Opposition to Empire (Nation Books), of which historian Howard Zinn said: "At exactly the time when we need it most, John Nichols gives us a special gift--a collection of writings, speeches, poems, and songs from throughout American history--that reminds us that our revulsion to war and empire has a long and noble tradition in this country."


With Robert W. McChesney, Nichols has co-authored the books, It's the Media, Stupid! (Seven Stories), Our Media, Not Theirs (Seven Stories) and Tragedy and Farce: How the American Media Sell Wars, Spin Elections, and Destroy Democracy (The New Press). McChesney and Nichols are the co-founders of Free Press, the nation's media-reform network, which organized the 2003 and 2005 National Conferences on Media Reform.


Of Nichols, author Gore Vidal says: "Of all the giant slayers now afoot in the great American desert, John Nichols's sword is the sharpest."