There’s Retired, And Then There’s RETIRED

Paul Ryan isn’t retiring. He’s not running for re-election. Big difference. My guess is he’s not even retiring from politics. I’ll bet he will soon become another highly-overpaid lobbyist. And maybe he’ll accept an invitation to a corporate board or two, to add a few million dollars to his annual earnings.

I’m retired. Not capital-R retired, but I’m down to one personal services contract that keeps me off the streets and keeps my mind active. I’m going to be 69 in a few weeks, and I’m counting the days until my child-bride retires. Capital-R retires.

At age 48, Paul Ryan probably could actually capital-R retire, but I don’t think that’s likely.

For my friends from out of state who follow politics, you may or may not be aware that it’s quite likely that Ryan would not be re-elected in Wisconsin’s First Congressional District. For one thing, Ryan has served well the interests of the Koch Brothers in Washington, but as for the folks in Janesville and the eastern part of the 1^st WI District – not so much. That fellow with the hard hat and prominent moustache is looking more and more likely to win that election, no matter who he faces.

I’m not a historian and I don’t know how the historians will write Paul Ryan’s chapter. I’ll remember Ryan as a failed candidate for Vice President, and a failed Ayn Rand acolyte who leaves office with a trillion-dollar nation debt as his heritage. How ironic, for someone who billed himself as a policy-wonk fiscal conservative.

I will say this: Ryan is gettin’ our while the gettin’ is still sorta good.

There’s a storm a’comin’.