Tommy Thompson

Paul Ryan is enjoying screwing things up for his party too much in the House to make a move to the Senate:

House budget chair Paul Ryan told the Journal Sentinel on Tuesday morning that he will not seek the U.S. Senate seat now held by Wisconsin Democrat Herb Kohl, saying "it would make no sense to leave where I am right now because I have such a bigger impact" in the House. ... "What matters to me is not the title. It's my ability to impact policy. It would take me, you know, 12 to 16 years in the Senate to get where I am in the House. I don't want to be in Congress for the rest of my life," said Ryan in an interview. "I don't want to take myself out of this fight, and leave the fight and a leadership role I have at the moment America is going to make up its mind about what kind of country it's going to become," he said.

I would have loved a straight head-to-head fight against Ryan — the battle lines would not have been clearer. But we may get someone even more fun:

[Tommy] Thompson, who served as President George W. Bush's Health and Human Services Secretary, has told GOP officials in Wisconsin and D.C. he intends to run if Ryan passes up the open Kohl seat. Ryan has made it clear in recent days he prefers his perch as chairman of the House Budget Committee — where he believes he can influence, if not drive, the debate on fiscal policy — to a seat in the Senate. Thompson, 69, served as governor from 1987 to 2001 and defined his policy chops with comprehensive welfare reform — called Wisconsin Works. The issue of welfare reform became an important component of the 1994 Contract With America. House Republicans under Speaker Newt Gingrich championed Thompson's reforms and clashed repeatedly with President Clinton, who vetoed the first two welfare reform bills the GOP-led 104th Congress sent to his desk.

Thompson is a clownish figure who made an unthinkably feeble run for president in 2008, where he was best known for remarks like this:

Speaking to an audience at the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism in Washington D.C., Thompson said that, "I'm in the private sector and for the first time in my life I'm earning money. You know that's sort of part of the Jewish tradition and I do not find anything wrong with that."

And this:

Tommy Thompson cited a dead hearing aid and an urgent need to use the bathroom in explaining on Saturday why he said at a GOP presidential debate that an employer should be allowed to fire a gay worker. ... “Nobody knows that,” Thompson said. “I’ve been very sick. … I was very sick the day of the debate. I had all of the problems with the flu and bronchitis that you have, including running to the bathroom. I was just hanging on. I could not wait until the debate got off so I could go to the bathroom.”

All of this mishugas inspired Jake McIntyre to write a brilliant elegy for Thompson, but it turns out we weren't done with him. In 2010, he came back to tease the political establishment, alternately looking like a "yes" to run for Senate against Russ Feingold, then looking like a "no," before finally bailing and blaming the decision on his family. It was an amateur-hour effort, which is indicative both of Thompson's fire in the belly (minimal) and his campaign organization (minimal).

So I'm suspicious about Thompson actually running this time, too. I also even wonder if he could survive a primary. As ThinkProgress points out, Thompson has said he supports the individual insurance mandate, a central crux of last year's healthcare reform bill and absolute poison among movement conservatives. Still, like I say, it would be awfully fun to see Tommy try.

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