Dick.

Dick.

As we saw a short while ago, Paul Ryan is retroactively blaming Pres. Barack Obama for a plant closing, in Ohio, in 2008.

He's got this whole spiel about Obama's terrible energy policies and how they doomed the plant. I can't wait to see if he amends his criticism, since it would've been George W. Bush's energy policies that doomed the plant.

But an interesting side story has emerged from this episode. You see—while Obama had nothing to do with that plant, as a representative from Wisconsin, Ryan happened to represent the district that was home to that plant. In fact, he claimed today that a bunch of his friends happened to work at it.

So if he represents the home of that plant, and he's got friends who work there ... he fights to keep it open, right? Of course not.



In 2008, however, Ryan vowed not to request earmarks anymore; he later helped push through an outright ban. I asked [John Beckord, a Ryan supporter and the head of Forward Janesville,] whether Ryan’s libertarianism ever clashed with the needs of his constituents. He hesitated, then said, finally, "I suppose there could have been a full-court press to just cobble together as much federal money as possible on our behalf to make it irresistible for G.M. to keep this plant open."

In other words, Ryan didto try and stop the closing of a major employer in his town, one that supposedly employed a bunch of his friends.

That's called being a dick.

The fact that he then tries to pin the blame on Obama just confirms that he's a big one.