NBC News is reporting that Rep. Paul Ryan, Wisconsin Republican, will not run for Senate in 2012.

Word broke that former Gov. Tommy Thompson is preparing a bid; Thompson had told associates he wouldn’t run if Ryan did.

We shouldn’t be surprised; Ryan obviously has a full plate as chair of the House Budget Committee; with fiscal and budgetary issues front and center now (and likely all the way through Election Day 2012), Ryan would have had to abandon his grand reform plan, just for a chance to become a junior senator.