Category: Politics

Two things I have learned while not watching the Republican National Convention this week is that Paul Ryan says his iPod playlist “starts with AC/DC and ends with Zepplin” and that Ryan lies.

Well, the first is certainly good. The 42-year-old Wisconsin congressman began his teen years in the 80s when both AC/DC and Led Zepplin were still relatively fresh. Although, one might wonder, as LA Times music critic Randall Roberts does, just what is in between the two hard rock bands on a device that holds more than a thousand songs? Did he also listen to the Brit invasion 80s version — Wham! and Culture Club? Was he fan of Milwaukee’s own “punks” the Violent Femmes? Or was he secretly into C & W or heaven help him, the local polka scene? Wisconsin — with its rich German and Pole heritage — even has its own Polka Hall of Fame.

All such is fun to speculate, especially if you are a music lover Wie I. Why I even like a good polka. But before we break out into a verse of “In Heaven There Is No Beer,” we must deal with the second part of what I learned about the Republican convention and Paul Ryan. That would be his propensity for not telling the truth, or not telling the truth to his ability. Oh hell, Ryan lies like a dead armadillo, meaning not only does he lie but he smells. I am not implying that he smells as with body odor. I mean he lies and what he says that isn’t a lie smells.

Fact-checkers have had a field day running down what Ryan uttered last night in his convention speech and cross-checking it to see if what he said was really true. Apparently, a great deal of what Ryan said was littered with untruths and omissions.

That a politician would lie is no great epiphany. All politicians bend the truth into whatever shape that fits their campaign. And think back over your presidential history. How many presidents have been elected because they have a superstar vice president? FDR? Ike? JFK? Nixon? G.H.W. Bush? Obama? On the other hand, some would-be presidents may have been hurt by their veep choice. Sen. John McCain comes to mind.

Certainly I will not vote for Romney-Ryan. But if I had to pick someone for president it would definitely not happen on the basis that his or her running mate likes some of the same music as I do. That other problem, with veracity? That wouldn’t help matters either.

It has been a long frustrating day but I thought I would say a few words about the presumptive GOP nominee for vice president. Wonk. Wonk wonk. Wonk wonk wonk.

What was Romney thinking? He picks a veep candidate who is only slightly more up tempo than the presumed Republican nominee himself. It’s hard to call Rep. Paul Ryan “a game changer.”

Ryan is what a College Republican looks like all grown up: A bit pasty from being cooped up inside those Capitol office buildings all his life. You certainly can’t say Ryan is a yang to Romney’s ying although some might say both were of the yang type.

Paul Ryan seems to be bright and articulate. He seems, to me at least, as dull as a convenience store doughnut. The Ryan budgetary genius might create a hefty amount of animus among seniors due to his plan to gut Medicare. In Mitt Romney one finds a moneyed android who might fall into a million pieces were he to discover a true emotion. Ryan comes across as much more the human partner of this pair. Unfortunately, the congressman cannot outrun the “Congress” which is a part of the man. The American people care for Congress about the way they do for, say, French mimes.

In other words, nice choice, Gov. Romney!

Some Republican leaders are finally showing a little intestinal fortitude and joining Sen. John McCain in denouncing attacks from some far right congressional members of a top Secretary of State Hillary Clinton aide.

Rep. Michelle Bachmann and goofball East Texas Congressman Louis Gohmert, and other fellow right-wing GOP members have made accusations that State Department official Huma Abedin could have ties to Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood. McCain denounced these attacks and now has been joined by others who see these attacks rising to the level of McCarthyism.

It’s about time.