Outside the Beltway

It’s that time again.

Beto is fading.

Liz Cheney can pretty much write her own political ticket right now.

Trump’s penchant for behaving more like a talk radio host than a POTUS continues unabated.

You say “Boot-A-Judge.” I say “Buddha-Judge” Boot-A-Judge. Buddha-Judge. Potato. Potatoh. Let’s call the whole thing off.

The problem is with our politics, not our institutions.

Other than confirming a lot of Trump Judges, the Senate has not been getting much work done so far this year.

The House Ways and Means Committee voted to issue a subpoena the President’s tax returns, but whether it will ever see them is unclear.

The President is systematically defying Congress. Whatever can be done about that?

Stacey Abrams, best known for losing the race for Governor of Georgia in 2018, is still apparently thinking of getting in the race. Her chances seem slim at best.

Chelsea Manning, who was being held in jail for refusing to comply with a Grand Jury subpoena, was released yesterday but it’s likely to only be a temporary freedom.

As he had threatened, President Trump has imposed new tariffs on Chinese goods, making a bad situation even worse.

There are several months to go before a budget must be passed but there are already signs that the White House and Congress could be headed for an impasse.

The President’s eldest son has been subpoenaed to appear before the Senate Intelligence Committee regarding Trump campaign contacts with Russia.

Your invitation to spout off.

Patrick Shanahan, who has been serving as Acting Defense Secretary since James Mattis left in December, is being selected to replace Mattis in that position.

Two weeks into his campaign, Joe Biden continues to build an impressive lead in polling at the state and national levels.

Valerie Plame, the former CIA agent whose identity was outed during the Bush Administration, is running for Congress in New Mexico.

While he campaigned on a message of restraint, Donald Trump has largely adopted the interventionist foreign policies of his predecessors.

In a first of its kind move, voters in Denver have voted to decriminalize psychedelic mushrooms.

As expected, the House Judiciary Committee voted yesterday on party lines to hold Attorney General William Barr in contempt for refusing to turn over a full copy of the Mueller Report

In an effort to block the release of the full report of Special Counsel Robert Mueller, the Trump Administration is invoking Executive Privilege.

The Trump Administration is taking an unnecessarily militaristic approach toward Iran, and that poses real dangers for the country and for the Middle East.

The New York Times has obtained about ten years worth of Donald Trump’s tax returns from the late eighties to early nineties. They don’t tell us much that we didn’t already know.

Donald Trump’s tariffs are hurting the American economy, American consumers, and American businesses.

The President revived an old debate but added some new twists.

A perfectly reasonable initiative with a significant downside.

Sometimes they’re still on Wednesday.

California is the latest state to try to force all Presidential candidates, including the President, to release their tax returns as a condition for getting on the ballot. It’s not at all clear that this is permitted under the Constitution.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell declared “case closed” on the Mueller Report and the Russia investigation. This is far from the truth.

Recent poll numbers suggest that the President is vulnerable in the part of the country that assured his Electoral College victory in 2020, but Democrats are going to have to work hard to flip these states.

The Treasury Secretary is declining to comply with a Congressional request for the President’s tax returns. Whether this is proper is a question that will have to be resolved by the courts.

The raw number of vessels is not the best metric of naval power.

If the economy remains strong, then Democrats could find it harder to beat the President than they thought.

This could be a very big deal – unless it isn’t.

A seemingly out-of-the-blue political movement is arguing in favor of independent election of Vice-Presidents.

Despite poll numbers suggesting otherwise, one political analyst suggests that the United States may not be “ready” for a gay President.

A new poll finds that a small majority of Americans support abolishing the Electoral College, but that’s not nearly enough to make any change in how we elect Presidents possible.

As the Friday deadline for trade talks with China approaches, President Trump is threatening even more tariffs.

Later this week, the House Judiciary Committee will vote to hold Attorney General William Barr in contempt, but it most likely won’t go anywhere.

More Madisonian musing on the current state of our constitutional order.

Back to Fed 51 and this moment in oversight: we have to remember what ambitions drive politicians.

We segregate men and women in sports for good reason. How we do that is complicated.

Jack Goldsmith pushed back on “over the top” reaction to the AG’s handling of the Mueller report.

With the apparent failure of the coup attempt in Venezuela, what happens next?

The move creates a rare Senate opening in the Equality State, and an opportunity for the daughter of a certain former Vice-President.

There’s a lot of talk right now about “electability.” but what the heck does it mean?