The GOP really stepped in it this time! In the House every Republican voted for the Ryan Plan. Then word got out about what was in the plan and seniors started showing up at town hall meetings asking their representatives, to quote Palin, “WTF”? The representatives even went so far as to write a letter to President Obama pledging to do better if they got a do-over.

They may get a do-over on the vote. The Senate is poised to vote, possibly today, on the Ryan Plan. It will not pass. But it will put GOP Senators on the record regarding the plan. Two GOP Senators have already announced that they will oppose the plan. One is the newly minted and presumed Tea Party darling who replaced Teddy Kennedy. The other is the centrist leaning Olympia Snow. They are already being threatened with primary challengers and DEM monetary support for any challenger.

But what happened in an election yesterday really tells the story. In a small Congressional district in up-state New York, a DEM won. She is only the fifth Democrat to hold this seat since 1823. This district is a lot like Mesa County. No Democrat need apply.

This time the GOP outspent the DEM in a district that they rarely bother to support monetarily. Usually it will vote GOP without the expense. There are about three times more registered GOP voters than DEM in the district. But this time even Karl Rove pushed money into the race.  The DEM still won.

The GOP will argue that the DEM won because there was a third candidate in the race who took votes from the GOP candidate. Maybe, but the DEM candidate also took votes from the GOP candidate, or she wouldn’t have won. It was demographically impossible for the DEM candidate to win without GOP votes.

Why did she win? Simple—she was against the Ryan Plan, and so are voters.

Homework

Ryan Plan

WSJ Story About GOP Do-Over Letter

NY Times Story about Senate Vote on Ryan Plan

Wikipedia Listing of Representatives from NY 26

GOP Preemptive lawsuit