Okay by now everybody knows Paul Ryan is a liar.  You’ve heard it all: the under three-hour marathon, the Janesville GM plant that closed before Obama took office but it was still his fault, etc.  I Googled “Paul Ryan’s lies” and got 215,000,000 results (no lie).  But there’s something even worse going on here.  A sleaze-ball like Ryan knows very well he’s lying and he also knows he can get away with it.  There are no consequences.  As conservative columnist David Brooks said in Sunday’s NY Times, “I know from conversations I’ve had that both campaigns do rigorous fact-checking.  When the candidates say something partially or wholly false, they know exactly what they’re doing.” Ryan knew full well he was flat out lying to the American public. And Ryan’s the guy who proudly proclaims he was an alter boy and that his political and economic thought is based on Catholic Social Teaching.  I guess Catholic teaching has nothing against lying.  You can be sure Ryan and Romney will keep on lying (“Romney’s lies” got 33,300,000 Google results.  (Yes, I did Obama too and he got 7,830,000 results so the Republicans win on the Lie-o-Meter.)  Now if you really want to know how cavalier the Republicans are about lying, get this.  Republican pollster Neil Newhouse said, “We are not going to let our campaign be dictated by fact-checkers.”  Makes you feel warm all over, doesn’t it?