
Steven Walters: Ryan’s 20-year tenure typical for state
House members from Wisconsin average 16 years in office, nearly double the national average.
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House members from Wisconsin average 16 years in office, nearly double the national average.

As Ryan leaves I suspect he will spend a lot of time connecting with his family but also time dreaming of what could be, especially when it comes to fighting poverty and creating upward mobility. He changed a great deal in office and can continue to produce change out of office. I’ve seen his vision, tenacity, kindness, listening skills and decency first-hand.

Congress must step up now to challenge Trump’s decision to launch unauthorized military strikes against Syria.

He is one of the best things to happen to Washington in years, this Wisconsin Republican who has been pragmatic, principled, prudent, caring, honest, knowledgeable, calm, compromising and innovative.

What’s the Democrats’ response to his call for responsible government?

Stand by for the next civil war among Republicans.

Wisconsin officials are expected to approve the Foxconn diversion in the coming weeks. Great Lakes advocates, already furious that environmental requirements have been waived, feel that Racine’s application may be straying from the compact’s original intent.

Instead of fully funding and supporting public education that supports and nurtures kids with a variety of needs, we’ve hamstrung teachers and thrown enormous sums of money into turning schools into jails.

In October, 1973 Nixon ordered Attorney General Elliot Richardson to fire Watergate Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox. Richardson refused and resigned. Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus similarly refused and was forced out. Finally, Solicitor General Robert Bork agreed to fire Cox. A few days later the Nixon administration ordered a worldwide military alert of U.S. forces, including nuclear weapons.

We don’t need to rely on Russian bots to fill our email and news feeds with false history. The Republican Party and the Trump administration have that well in hand, demonstrated by a selective and probably ineffective airstrike on Syria April 13 that closed with Trump reviving Bush’s false claim at the end of the Iraq war: “Mission Accomplished.”

There is a surprising level of grave-dancing from a party that just a year ago lost a presidential race to one of the most absurd candidates to ever run for the nation’s highest office.

Our acquaintances on the Left are not the only ones exposing their bilious natures today at the retirement of Paul Ryan from public life. Too many of my fellow conservatives are bidding good riddance to what they call a RINO — a Republican in name only. Most of whom never bothered to run for elective office or made much of a difference if they did.

Just when you think the United States will join most of the rest of the civilized world and outlaw the death penalty, along comes Donald Trump.

It’s time we Republicans stop feeling sorry for ourselves and fight back! As Republicans, we’ve come too far to just let it all go.

We deserve to be optimistic. We deserve to feel hope. But we must also take caution against complacency.

Gov. Scott Walker recently signed bills overhauling state welfare programs as Republicans in Washington, D.C. made an election-year push on welfare reform. Jensen & Chvala, the WisOpinion Insiders, debate the reasons behind the GOP efforts. Sponsored by Michael Best Strategies and the Wisconsin Counties Association.

The authors used two major national surveys from before the election, and combined them with deep-dive measures of racist and sexist attitudes and dissatisfaction with personal economic conditions. They concluded, “We find that while economic considerations were an important part of the story, racial attitudes and sexism were much more strongly related to support for Trump.”

Destined for greatness, so many said. Why didn’t he realize it?

He must remember that he was the reluctant speaker, who now wants to get out while the getting is good. He should leave with modesty, grace and the usual warning not to let the door hit him in his hindquarters.

The forthcoming implosion of Mr. Ryan’s party, and his imminent retreat to Wisconsin, illustrates the danger of hidebound ideological overconfidence.

House members from Wisconsin average 16 years in office, nearly double the national average.

As Ryan leaves I suspect he will spend a lot of time connecting with his family but also time dreaming of what could be, especially when it comes to fighting poverty and creating upward mobility. He changed a great deal in office and can continue to produce change out of office. I’ve seen his vision, tenacity, kindness, listening skills and decency first-hand.

Congress must step up now to challenge Trump’s decision to launch unauthorized military strikes against Syria.

He is one of the best things to happen to Washington in years, this Wisconsin Republican who has been pragmatic, principled, prudent, caring, honest, knowledgeable, calm, compromising and innovative.

What’s the Democrats’ response to his call for responsible government?

Stand by for the next civil war among Republicans.

Wisconsin officials are expected to approve the Foxconn diversion in the coming weeks. Great Lakes advocates, already furious that environmental requirements have been waived, feel that Racine’s application may be straying from the compact’s original intent.

Instead of fully funding and supporting public education that supports and nurtures kids with a variety of needs, we’ve hamstrung teachers and thrown enormous sums of money into turning schools into jails.

In October, 1973 Nixon ordered Attorney General Elliot Richardson to fire Watergate Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox. Richardson refused and resigned. Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus similarly refused and was forced out. Finally, Solicitor General Robert Bork agreed to fire Cox. A few days later the Nixon administration ordered a worldwide military alert of U.S. forces, including nuclear weapons.

We don’t need to rely on Russian bots to fill our email and news feeds with false history. The Republican Party and the Trump administration have that well in hand, demonstrated by a selective and probably ineffective airstrike on Syria April 13 that closed with Trump reviving Bush’s false claim at the end of the Iraq war: “Mission Accomplished.”

There is a surprising level of grave-dancing from a party that just a year ago lost a presidential race to one of the most absurd candidates to ever run for the nation’s highest office.

Our acquaintances on the Left are not the only ones exposing their bilious natures today at the retirement of Paul Ryan from public life. Too many of my fellow conservatives are bidding good riddance to what they call a RINO — a Republican in name only. Most of whom never bothered to run for elective office or made much of a difference if they did.

Just when you think the United States will join most of the rest of the civilized world and outlaw the death penalty, along comes Donald Trump.

It’s time we Republicans stop feeling sorry for ourselves and fight back! As Republicans, we’ve come too far to just let it all go.

We deserve to be optimistic. We deserve to feel hope. But we must also take caution against complacency.

Gov. Scott Walker recently signed bills overhauling state welfare programs as Republicans in Washington, D.C. made an election-year push on welfare reform. Jensen & Chvala, the WisOpinion Insiders, debate the reasons behind the GOP efforts. Sponsored by Michael Best Strategies and the Wisconsin Counties Association.

The authors used two major national surveys from before the election, and combined them with deep-dive measures of racist and sexist attitudes and dissatisfaction with personal economic conditions. They concluded, “We find that while economic considerations were an important part of the story, racial attitudes and sexism were much more strongly related to support for Trump.”

Destined for greatness, so many said. Why didn’t he realize it?

He must remember that he was the reluctant speaker, who now wants to get out while the getting is good. He should leave with modesty, grace and the usual warning not to let the door hit him in his hindquarters.

The forthcoming implosion of Mr. Ryan’s party, and his imminent retreat to Wisconsin, illustrates the danger of hidebound ideological overconfidence.