Peter Robinson offers the weakest defense of Ryan’s terrible voting record I have seen so far:
How can we defend him against charges that he’s at least part responsible for the mess we’re in?
We don’t need to. Ryan himself has already recanted, demonstrating the remorse of the genuine penitent.
Robinson has just shown that Ryan can’t be defended against charges that “he’s at least part responsible for the mess we’re in.” There’s no getting around the fact that Ryan voted for some horrible and fiscally irresponsible bills. As Jim Antle mentions in his article today, Medicare Part D added trillions to the government’s unfunded liabilities. The best defense Robinson can come up with is not to offer one, and instead point to evidence that Ryan regrets his votes. If we take Ryan’s regret seriously, that is proof that he is partly responsible. Indeed, if Ryan is sincere about how “miserable” he was back then, the report of his past misery confirms that he believes he was partly responsible.
Ryan can claim to have been miserable about those votes all he likes. It doesn’t change the fact that the entitlement he voted to create is still there adding to the country’s long-term fiscal obligations. Of course, if Ryan were really “recanting,” he wouldn’t be using Medicare Part D to support his current arguments. He would be arguing for reducing or dismantling it.
Charlie 
Victory over Eurasia 
One of the advantages to belonging to a party with a strong religious component is that admitting to past sins is enough. So Ryan can vote for as many over-the-top spending bills as he wants, but he is sorry now – and that is what they expect to be judged on. Ryan can publicly discuss his Catholicism, and his opposition to abortion, while at the same time citing Ayn Rand as one of his heroes, who did not believe that fetuses were people, and thus enjoyed no legal protections. Consistency and competency are no longer qualifications in the modern Republican party.