The Janesville Gazettes Going Away Present To Paul Ryan

By Jeff Simpson 

We have pointed out before that the Janesville Gazette is having trouble letting Paul Ryan go.  After Paul Ryan announced he would no longer be running, the editorial department at the Gazette wore black for days.   I would guess that anytime The Donald makes major news, that you can find the editorial staff at the Looking Glass, drowning their sorrows in what might have been!   

After much thought, different ideas, and cake the Gazette had to figure out what parting gift could they give their dearly beloved.   With the dwindling state of the newspaper industry, coupled with Paul Ryan's extravagant tastes, made a nice dinner out of the question. 

The Gazette did the next best thing. and decided to give Paul Ryan one last parting gift, endorsing his clone.   They felt that if they can not have Paul in office, his driver would be the next best thing.    

What really freed up their time though to do this, was they let Paul Ryan's SuperPac - Congressional Leadership Fund write the endorsement for them.    

The 1st Congressional District race is a story about Randy Bryce’s shortcomings as much as Bryan Steil’s qualifications.
With a lengthy arrest record and a history of falling behind on child-support payments, Bryce is in no way congressional material. How Bryce managed to defeat Cathy Myers, a school teacher and Janesville resident, in the Democratic primary would be a mystery except that Bryce benefited from a much larger campaign war chest.

The paper that loves Paul Ryan complaining about a candidate having too big of a war chest.  Thats rich(pun intended).  

  A candidate’s character matters less today than it once did, but Bryce’s personal failings are extraordinary, even by today’s crumbling standards for our nation’s leaders. The problem is not so much Bryce’s past mistakes but that he showed an inability to learn from them. He didn’t rack up merely one OWI in 1998 (plenty of voters can identify with this). He was then picked up three times for driving with a suspended license and was arrested on a warrant for failure to appear. 

Really?   The Gazette, who refused to endorse in the last Presidential Race, has decided that Randy Bryce's history is outrageous but The Donald's is not. 

 And lest there be any doubt as to whether Bryce is a “changed man,” the state of Wisconsin placed a lien on Bryce’s property in 2015 for delinquent child-support payments to his ex-wife. Bryce paid off the debt only after announcing his candidacy last year.

The "money shot" from the paper that perennially posts about the great family man that Paul Ryan is, now judges how Randy Bryce raises his child.   Apparently they know more than Randy's ex-wife who says:

Boudreaux says she is very grateful to Bryce for the "supportive and respectful co-parenting relationship we have" for their 12-year-old son

Now I do not know who to believe, the Janesville Gazette editorial board or the mother of Bryce's child.   Diane Hendricks would be so proud! 

His background more closely resembles the kind routinely encountered by probation officers, not 1st Congressional District voters. To attempt to twist his arrest record into a symbol of the everyday working man, as Bryce’s campaign has done, is perhaps one of the most cynical and offensive ploys we’ve ever witnessed.

Because no normal person has ever committed the crime of driving to work without a license. 

 While we’re not fans of negative campaigning and believe every candidate must make a case for himself, Bryce’s personal failings are too egregious to ignore. The stakes are too high for someone of Bryce’s caliber to slip into office.

There is no place for negative campaigning only negative editorials and endorsements. 

 As for Steil, he is sometimes derisively described as a clone of House Speaker Paul Ryan, though Steil is no Paul Ryan (and we mean that as a compliment to Ryan). Indeed, it’s an impossible comparison for Steil to live up to, as it took Ryan years to develop into the powerful statesman he’s become.

Some people compare Steil to Ryan as a criticism, but we think he is dreamy.   

Steil has a lot to learn, including fleshing out his policy positions. One of our criticisms of his campaign has been its underwhelming message and lack of policy specifics. For all the criticism we’ve leveled against Bryce, his platform (as radical as much of it is) leaves no question on where he stands. We can’t say the same for Steil’s.

While Steil, has no substance at least he isn't the radical socialist leftist that Randy Bryce is.   Did you know he actually thinks all people should have health care and a living wage? 

But we’re not too concerned about Steil’s future, and we suspect he’ll take a path similar to Sen. Ron Johnson’s. As a businessman without any previous political experience when elected in 2010, Johnson had a large learning curve to overcome. He’s matured as a politician and today exhibits a strong handle on many issues affecting Wisconsin.

We like Steil’s eagerness to tackle the nation’s spending problem and hope he can make progress on one of Ryan’s major goals, entitlement reform. Securing the financial future of both Social Security and Medicare should be a top priority for the next Congress, and Steil has an opportunity to shine on this front.

“Should any political party attempt to abolish social security unemployment insurance and eliminate labor laws and farm programs you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group of course that believes you can do these things. Among them are a few other Texas oil millionaires and an occasional politician or business man from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid.”― Dwight D. Eisenhower

As Steil learns the job, he’ll likely close the knowledge gap with Ryan. He’ll have to put up with comparisons to Ryan for a while, but we’re confident he’ll leave his own mark on Congress.

Now I feel bad, I would not want anyone compared to the real Paul Ryan!  

The Gazette, in fawning over Paul Ryan and anyone in his entourage(life Steil) has really done a disservice to the great city of Janesville and our state of Wisconsin.   
They still need to change their name to the Paul Ryan Messenger!

Please vote for Randy Bryce in the 1st CD, instead of Paul Ryan's chauffeur!   

We need someone who actually cares enough to stop things like this from happening in the future(Janesville GM plant)!