Outside the Beltway

Congress seems ready to avoid having to vote on expanded attacks against the Islamic State

So far at least, there is no evidence that 2014 will be a “wave election.”

Dispelling a rising myth,

It’s hard for a party to win four straight presidential elections. The Democrats may pull it off.

Republicans in the House seem determined to make life difficult for whomever wins the GOP nomination in 2016

It wasn’t the Democrats.

It’s beginning to look like the 2016 race for the Republican nomination will have its own collection of oddballs.

Led by Speaker John Boehner, Republican leaders are trying to placate calls for impeachment.

Emil Henry makes “The Case for Mitt Romney in 2016.”

For some reason, President Obama wants to arm so-called “moderate” Syrian rebels.

When it comes to Iraq, the media only seems to be giving Americans one side of the story.

Chris McDaniel and his Tea Party supporters are being very sore losers.

Recent events in Iraq have opened up old domestic political arguments in the United States.

TNR makes the worst possible case for a proposition that’s almost certainly right.

Iraq is falling apart for reasons that have nothing to do with President Obama or his policies.

The Obama White House rejected Republican criticism of the deal that led to the release of the only American Prisoner Of War from the Afghanistan War.

Petty politics, or valid concerns?

Eric Shinseki resigned as Secretary of Veterans Affairs this morning, to the surprise of absolutely nobody.

Once again, President Obama’s attempt to communicate a foreign policy vision falls short.

It seems unlikely that Eric Shinseki will have a job for much longer.

Hubris.

A new poll indicates that Democratic candidates are holding their own against Republican challengers in three southern states.

The GOP “establishment” keeps beating back challenges.

It might not be pretty.

So, this happened.

The bloom is off the rose, but Chris Christie could still be a strong candidate in 2016.

Who watches Sunday morning talk shows anymore?

As Sarah Palin and the Tea Party turn on Paul Ryan, they are making apparent their own lack of relevance in the political process.

Top Republican donors are starting to look at the former Governor of Florida as their candidate in 2016.

So, Dana Milbank has a column.

Nora Caplan-Bricker contends that, “Mike Huckabee Could Be President—If Only He Wanted It.”

My first piece for The Hill, “Crimea is not Armageddon,” posted this morning.

President Obama is rewarding unqualified hacks who raised huge sums for his campaign with ambassadorships.

A slap on the wrist underscores the bottom-up nature of US parties.

Dr. Alexandros Petersen, a scholar of Eurasian energy and a former colleague at the Atlantic Council, was killed in a bomb blast in Kabul.

Has Speaker Boehner breathed new life into immigration reform in the House? Maybe.

Ted Cruz continues to act as if he hasn’t learned his lessons from the shutdown debacle

It wasn’t a Thermonuclear move, more like something the size of Hiroshima, but today the Senate took an historic move nonetheless.

After the GOP blocked a series of Obama judicial nominees, Democrats are again threatening to go nuclear on filibuster reform.

The Junior Senator from Kentucky does some re-writing of history.

Looking at Chris Christie as he interacts with voters in New Jersey offers a glimpse of just how he could succeed in a 2016 GOP nomination fight.