The Durango Herald’s Joe Hanel reports:
National Democrats are hoping Wisconsin congressman Paul Ryan’s selection as the vice presidential candidate will hurt his fellow House Republicans, including Rep. Scott Tipton of Cortez.Tipton and almost every other House Republican voted for budgets that Ryan wrote. The plans would cut spending on education and social programs such as unemployment in order to pay for tax cuts and deficit reduction. Ryan also wants to convert Medicare into a voucher program for people who retire after 2023, at a possible cost of $1,200 a year or more for those people, according to the Congressional Budget Office…
“Congressman Tipton must now defend drastically cutting Medicare and raising health-care costs for seniors by $6,400 while giving a $265,000 tax break to millionaires,” [Jesse Ferguson of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee] wrote in a news release.
The presence of Paul Ryan on the Republican ticket in 2012 carries some possible benefits, but mostly grave risks for Colorado’s most endangered freshman incumbent. One the one hand, the Romney-Ryan is campaign now attempting to defend, however mendaciously, the budget plan Ryan authored and Republicans like Scott Tipton voted for. That’s some relief for Tipton, who can point to Ryan’s defense of the GOP budget to defend himself.
The problem for Tipton is the defense of the Ryan plan as it’s currently being mounted is fundamentally dishonest, and as a result, not politically sustainable. If Democrats succeed in convincing Americans that Ryan’s plan would harm Medicare, thus making Ryan toxic–which they are now wholly invested in by necessity–Tipton could very well go down with him.
It may be even worse for Tipton for the debate to home in on Medicare, after he ran on a contradictory platform of “cutting the government in half” and “no cuts, no privatization” of Medicare in 2010–then proceeded to vote for a plan to privatize Medicare. Short of cognitive dissonance on a district-wide scale winning the day, there may not a face-saving way out.
Sal was arrested in 2003 when he was 29 years old and than failed to show up for his Court date and had a warrant issued.
There is a reason why Joe Miklosi is now a top tier target for the Democrats and Sal is in tier two and dropping.
are better than they are in the 3rd. That’s the only reason there’s a difference in DCCC ranking. But you’re kidding yourself if you think Tipton isn’t vulnerable, and the Ryan link doesn’t help him.
Six months ago everyone said Miklosi had no chance. They are not saying that today.
Sal’s arrest record is really going to damage his chances.
This kind of ham-fisted shilling is so 2006.
Is anything Gadfly said incorrect? Has the DCCC changed these priorities?
It’s not what he says, but to what purpose.
Romney and the Repubs, including our own Tipton, seemed so focused on making this all about “Obama’s” lousy economy and that really was the best focus for them to have. Romney an Co. really haven’t wanted to divulge anything but platitudes about the GOP’s own plans. When asked for details they change the subject. So why did Romney’s team pick Ryan, famous for the infamous Ryan Plan, a plan that the GOP has long been so conflicted about,simultaneously voting for it while, in all but the reddest districts, trying to get some distance from it?
Now it’s all about the Ryan plan and the very questions Romney doesn’t want to answer are going to be asked for the duration: What is it? Romney says his plan is different. He can’t answer that without some details as in the Ryan plan calls for x but mine calls for y or x.2 …something. Same goes for Tipton and all the rest in his shoes.
Do they support the Ryan plan or whatever the Romney plan is? Does the Romney plan also involve raising seniors share of their health care by $6500 and giving them a coupon with no guarantee it will come close to covering their private insurance costs? If not, what does Romney’s plan for “saving” medicare look like? Which kind of plan does Tipton support?
This is all stuff Romney and purple state R candidates have made really, really clear they don’t want to have to talk about in any but the vaguest terms. Romney and Tiptons all over the country will now have to spend a lot of time explaining their positions on these issues when they’d rather be spending all their time talking about bad Obama.
No wonder the voter suppression efforts in all the swing states are in draconian overdrive. If they can’t get enough of the middle they have to shut down Dem voters as much as they possibly can. I guess the plan is double down on the R base and suppress the hell out of the Dem base. But isn’t it too high risk? Stay tuned, I guess.
Mittens slings mud, Obama slings mud back. Mittens plays victim; whines that we need to talk about the issues. So then Mittens is asked about the issues and has no concrete policy or solid details. Mittens slings mud….
Over, and over, and over.
Calling for Romney to present his taxes is not mud. Pointing out Romney’s wealth is not mud. Pointing out that Romney’s tax cuts benefit him directly is not mud.
But at least it’s not lying mud. Obama is following the “I’ll stop telling the truth about you if you stop lying about me…” philosophy right now.
at the heart of Miklosi’s ad campaign and he better get enough money for some serious ad penetration.
Sal Pace gets his butt to the Western Slope at something other than pay-to-attend events.
Campaigns need to raise money, but to make access to the candidate always contingent on willingness to pay is not a good strategy, especially in a part of the state where Faux News is on seemingly every TV in waiting rooms and Limbaugh-Hanity pull insane radio ratings.
It does get discouraging living over here.
You’ve got Palisade peaches and Antelope Mesa cherries. You’ve got beautifully gnarled Utah junipers on the flanks of the Uncompaghre Plateau and meadows of multicolored Indian paintbrushes on Grand Mesa. You’ve got sunsets beyond the San Miguels and sunsets reflected on Lizard Head and you’ve got rain washed Red Mountain glistening like a ruby crowned with rainbows.
You’ve got the Stinking Desert National Monument between Whitewater and Delta and you’ve got more dangerously deranged righties than Denver’s got homeless people and run-over squirrels. Wait a minute, I seemed to have gotten off track here. Ok, gertie, I guess you’ve got a right to be discouraged.
I continue to call GJ home is my unwillingness to just let all those tinfoil hat wearing rednecks have the place all to themselves. I try to be a burr under their saddle until someday the demographics change…I should live so long….