Paul Ryan Runs Away From Pissed Off Senior Citizens At A Town Hall Meeting In Kenosha

Paul Ryan (above) has never had a serious reelection challenge. Like we've said many times in the past, the DCCC always seems to butt into the primary-- knock out anyone plausible and then walk away from Wisconsin's first congressional district as soon as Ryan's opponent is a guaranteed loser. Sounds quasi-conspiratorial... like in Wall Street called in a favor. But, that's just impossible, right?

And this year looks different. The candidate the DCCC is backing, Kenosha County Supervisor Rob Zerban is a plausible candidate with an actual chance to ride a building wave against right-wing overreach and take out one of the best financed-- courtesy of Wall Street-- politicians in the House of Representatives. Still a long shot, but unlike any of Ryan's previous "challengers," at least is a shot.

Starting with Ryan himself, Republicans have been harassed and challenged by their constituents after voting for Ryan's Ayn Rand-inspired selfishness budget. In 2010, Ryan's cardboard opponent managed to lose every single county in the district, even the counties Obama had won just two years before. But he did best in Kenosha-- the county Obama did best in, the county Rob Zerban was elected a supervisor from, and the county Ryan held an ill-fated town hall meeting yesterday.

When Ryan arrived he was greeted by scores of elderly constituents with signs reading "Hands Off My Medicare," chanting "Ryan stop lying."

There was capacity crowd inside the school’s Madrigrana Auditorium. “Do not renew the Bush tax credit for the wealthy,” one man said during the public comment period, even giving out his phone number in front of everyone. “I’ll debate these issues with you anytime, just call me.” At times, the Janesville Republican sounded more like a referee than a lawmaker. “If you're yelling, I just want to ask you to leave,” Ryan requested. “If you're going to scream out like that, it's just not polite to everyone. We've got media here. Let's prove to them that Wisconsinites can be cordial with one another.” TODAY’S TMJ4 set up an interview with Ryan following the meeting, but it was scrapped by staffers and police over a security concern. The congressman changed the door where he planned to exit and left in a different vehicle than the one than he arrived in. “There were just definitely some loud hecklers who came that gave the police a little concern,” Ryan told TODAY’S TMJ4 reporter by phone. “I left in another car with the police. My car, some people did surround. But, they didn’t cause any problems and I had a staffer who drove my car and we had really no problems.” Ryan insists the hurried exit should not be “blown out of proportion.”

Ryan has carefully built up a veneer of a folksy, popular "good guy" in his district. That's beginning to shatter now. He's vulnerable. Blue America thinks he can be beaten-- and we have plans to help plow that field. If you'd like to contribute, we have a special Stop Paul Ryan page.

UPDATE: Ryan's Schedule This Week

Be polite and and nonviolent.

Thursday, April 28

WATERFORD: 9:45-10:45am, Village Hall, 123 North River Street

FRANKLIN: 11:15-12:15pm, Franklin High School, Gymnasium, 8222 South 51st Street * Attendees should park in LOWER/STUDENT LOT (venue changed to accommodate larger crowds)

OAK CREEK: 1:30-2:30pm, Oak Creek Police Department, 301 West Ryan Road

GREENFIELD: 3:00-4:15pm, Whitnall High School, Auditorium, 5000 South 116th Street (venue changed to accommodate larger crowds)

Friday, April 29

BURLINGTON: 10:30-11:30am, Veterans Terrace (Liberty Hall), 589 Milwaukee Avenue

UNION GROVE: 1:00-2:00pm, Community State Bank, 1500 Main Street

STURTEVANT: 2:15-3:15pm, Village Hall, 2801 89th Street

RACINE: 3:45-5:00pm, Caesar Chavez Community Center Gymnasium, 2221 Douglas Avenue (venue changed to accommodate larger crowds)