This is why it is bad for a party when one of your members never ever faces a credible opponent. He doesn't have to worry about joining forces with idiots like Paul Ryan. I honestly think the best thing that would happen for the Dems is for someone competent to take on Wyden, and force him to fight for the seat. Winning by 3% rather than 25% might be just the thing he needs.

This knee jerk "vote for the Democrat" approach among so many people in Oregon
has to stop. But at least more people are wising up to Wyden and what a phony he is. Hey a guy who made his political name in Oregon by being the gung-ho Gray Panthers leader now turns around and pulls this S!!T?? YUP.

I believe Jon Huntsman advocates term limits that would cap out at 12 years for both the House and Senate. This should help ease some of that dedication to the party rather than the country kind of thinking. I haven't been a fan of term limits in the past, but they are looking like a reasonable alternative to gridlock.

Can someone remind me when it was that Oregon flipped from being a predominantly Republican or Independent state (Mark Hatfield, Tom McCall, Bob Packwood, Wayne Morse, etc.) to being so Democratic (Kitzhaber, Kulongowski, Katz, (the 3 Ks), Wyden, Goldschmidt, etc)?

Dave J:

This is why it is bad for a party when one of your members never ever faces a credible opponent. He doesn't have to worry about joining forces with idiots like Paul Ryan.

Bob T:

It works both ways -- having easy roads to repeated re-election causes some to not worry about continuing to kick the can down the road and having no new ideas.

Besides, although I'm not big on Wyden I have noted that more and more he seems to fit the role of what Democratic voters would call a "maverick" in his own party. They praise "mavericks" in the Republican Party, i.e. maverick behavior for its own sake (so they say), but really hate their own "mavericks".

Bob Tiernan
NE Portland

If Wyden actually got anything accomplished, his "maverick" status would be better respected. But he comes up with one doofy idea after another that nobody else ever votes for. It's his way of voting "absent."

Will someone please take away his key to the state? Puhleeeze.

He's just on a tryout for his next new employers. We need to fire him. What a creepshow.

Holy geezus crap, BlueO lost whatever credibility they had left.

Here's Kari:

"As with everything related to health care, this is really complex. I'm probably going to be blowing up my weekend to brush up on Medicare, Medicare Advantage, and study this plan."

It's Paul F*ckin Ryan. What else do you need to study???

"As a first blush reaction, I think it's important to note that just eight months after Paul Ryan committed himself to abolishing Medicare, Ron Wyden has gotten him to agree to protecting Medicare forever.
That's a huge flip-flop from Ryan..."

Yeah, I'm sure Ryan has seen the errors of his way /snark.....Seriously?? Dude, talk about money polluting the brain. Kari has a bad case of it.

"As I learned during the last two health care episodes - first, Wyden's 2006 Healthy Americans Act; and second, the 2009 health care reform fight - health care is really, really complex. There are a lot of moving parts, and a single adjective can make a huge difference in the policy outcome. (For example, one that I'm seeing here - a distinction between "GDP" and "nominal GDP". If you don't understand that, you're not seeing the whole picture.)"

It's really, really complex. That's why it seems like political enemies are friends. See?? Really complex, I tell you. Seriously complex, lying eyes, etc.

"So, I'm going to reserve judgment for now. Time to dig into the details."

Wow. Just wow.
--------------------------------

It's no wonder I stopped volunteering for the "middle" half of the corporatocracy.

Not that it makes any difference but the Federal TSP is a 403(b) plan.

National blog on Wyden:

http://news.firedoglake.com/2011/12/15/ryan-teams-with-wyden-on-new-plan-for-medicare/

Mr. Grumpy,
A reminder:
http://www.wweek.com/photos/3118/goldschmidt.pdf
The Web of Power Chart.

This knee jerk "vote for the Democrat" approach among so many people in Oregon
has to stop.

Amen! And I'll stop voting for Democrats immediately once we have an independent national party of the left, based in the labor, human rights and grassroots environmental movements and led by intellectuals whose commitment, competence and integrity are unimpeachable. Until that glorious day dawns, there's unfortunately no alternative whatsoever.

Since there wasn't much on the Telly last night I decided to watch the Republican debate, commonly called the "republican clown show." 5 of the performers on stage stated, "today, meaning yesterday now, was a great day for America because Ron Wyden is co-sponsoring a bill with Paul Ryan to allow privatization of Medicare, we need more bipartisanship like this to fix the country."

The easiest and fastest way to fix Medicare is to pull all the self-serving members of congress off their payed free medical for them and there families and make them use Medicare and pay for it themselves. Problem would be solved in 30 days or less.