Paul Ryan to Cap His Spectacular Fall from the Conservative Firmament by Addressing Tea Baggers in Madison

Is there anyone having a worse month than Paul Ryan?

Four weeks ago he was the Republican ideas guy on all things related to the budget, the sexy policy wonk from the Heartland with the youthful vim and vigor to return Congress to spending sanity. He was a principled conservative who was firmly grounded in realty and empirical evidence.

But in the last month that reputation his been sullied. First there was the Bizarro Budget Without Numbers instant classic, a PR fiasco that was an extravagant disaster as far as roll-outs go. Then came the Bizzaro Budget With Numbers, which seemed little more than an amalgamation of right wing think tank fantasy proposals (a five year spending freeze? a flat tax?) that would actually increase the deficit more than the President's budget. It didn't help that the plan was released on April Fool's Day, either.

Now people are looking into Ryan's record as a champion of deregulation and his campaign's ties to the financial industry just as he's accepted the honor of giving the keynote address to the Hey You Damn Kids, Get Off My Lawn! Caucus in Madison tomorrow. Three weeks ago Ryan was standing wingtip to wingtip with the GOP Congressional leadership on national television, now he just gets to have a local talk radio crank introduce him to a crowd of fawning wingnuts. That shoud give you an idea of just how unseriously the Bizzaro Budget was taken: instead of fighting Obama's budget in Washington this week, Ryan is back in Wisconsin fighting Doyle's budget (it almost feels like a pitcher who gets sent down to the minors to rehab an injured arm).