MADISON - Republicans in Wisconsin and Washington D.C. are picking apart Ron Johnson as an ineffective senator incapable of giving attention to Wisconsin's many needs in a new National Journal article.

In the story, Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, Johnson's former chief of staff and several Republican operatives all chide Johnson for wearing blinders and taking a PowerPoint-heavy lecture-based approach to telling Wisconsinites what their priorities should be.

One Wisconsin Republican operative goes so far as to say Ron Johnson needs to learn "you can walk and chew gum at the same time."

Key Excerpts:

"Talk to many Wisconsin Republicans about Ron Johnson, and they'll ask to keep their names out of the story. On the record, their kindest praise can sound like a backhanded compliment: The freshman senator is getting better at his job."

"People wondered," said Robin Vos, the GOP speaker of the State Assembly. "Only because he was operating … where he really was focused on getting the most done for Wisconsin that he could in his job in Washington, as opposed to spending time in Wisconsin telling people what he was doing."

"Interviews with ideological allies, Senate operatives, and Wisconsin Republicans all paint a strikingly similar picture of a political novice who struggled with basic tasks, alienated allies, and even prompted speculation that he wouldn't seek another term in office."

"When he got elected, it was, 'OK, I got elected because of the debt' … and he was so hyperfocused on that, frankly, he did have a little bit of blinders on because of the debt, and spending that led to the debt, that he missed some of the other things that he should have been paying attention to," said Mark Graul, a well-known Republican and former strategist in Wisconsin. "You can walk and chew gum at the same time."

Your can read the Full Article here.