Word: republican
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...Republican Congressman Paul Ryan recently received an unexpected olive branch, in a most unexpected setting. During a public sparring session with House Republicans in Baltimore on Jan. 29, President Obama singled out the Janesville, Wis., native, who has put forth a controversial plan to balance the federal budget with a sweeping overhaul of Medicare and Social Security, which together with defense spending comprise 55% of the government's total outlays. Obama called Ryan's "Roadmap for America's Future" a "serious proposal" and praised its author as a "pretty sincere guy" with a "beautiful family." It was a rare moment...
Since then, Democrats have followed up with a flurry of withering attacks, all of which signal a tactical shift: after months of painting their opponents as obstructionists willing to sacrifice critical legislation for electoral gain, Democrats are now tripping over themselves to juxtapose their ideas with a substantive Republican policy proposal. Still, the blows have done little but burnish Ryan's reputation. His was the first name out of Sarah Palin's mouth when the Tea Party queen was asked to handicap the field of GOP presidential candidates, and the conservative punditry hailed Ryan as a "one-man refutation...
...director for Kansas Senator Sam Brownback, Ryan mounted a successful bid for Wisconsin's First Congressional District seat in 1998, at age 28. Now 40, the avid outdoorsman is ensconced in a district that shares his pro-life, pro-gun-rights views, and has ascended to become the ranking Republican on the House Budget Committee. "He's an unabashed policy wonk," says Mark Green, a fellow Wisconsin Republican and friend who was elected to the House the same year as Ryan. "This is a guy who would take policy papers back to the office with him at night and stay...
...worked closely with Ryan to develop the proposal, says making their policies politically palatable will be a gradual process, one that involves locating an array of co-sponsors - hopefully from both sides of the aisle. "There haven't really been any conversations between our little group and the [Republican] leadership," Nunes says. "The leadership has got to be concerned about winning the next election, whereas Paul and I are concerned with having a win for the country." Their goal, he adds, is to spark serious debate, and "then, in 2012, if the conditions are right, to have a presidential candidate...
...form of structure to all of this bursting energy that's out there." And while several conservatives said they believed Tea Partyers would naturally align under the conservative banner, they cautioned that the movement's support could not be taken for granted. "These new people distrust everybody," Keene says. "Republicans are carrying the burden and the baggage of the last time they were in power. People remember that. They have to be very careful about being consistent this time around if they want these people to rally to their cause electorally." While Sarah Palin has urged Tea Party independents...