Outside the Beltway

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.

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

Did I leave the Republican Party or did it leave me? Both.

The ongoing apparent attempted coup in Venezuela is already leading to talk of American intervention in the event of a crackdown. That would be unwise and unjustified.

Emperor Akihito became the first Japanese Emperor to abdicate the throne in 200 years today.

The narrow loser of the Georgia governor’s race has left open the possibility of running for President.

Ballot measures across the country would deny access to those who refuse to release tax returns.

A Federal Court in Michigan has found several of that state’s Congressional and state legislative districts to have been subject to extreme partisan gerrymandering.

Counter-Intelligence officials are warning that Russia is preparing another election interference campaign for the 2020 election.

A law professor asks some interesting questions, but ultimately not the right ones.

Having lost to him, she’s an ineffective voice on the matter of Donald Trump.

The Vermont socialist likes to invent rights that don’t exist.

The Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez edition.

Sanders’ suggestion is not as outside democratic norms as one might think.

“We have to be careful in balancing big dreams and bold ideas with also recognizing that typically change happens in steps.”

A lesson from Puerto Rico and further reasons why the EC is a problem.

Princeton historian Sean Wilentz lays to rest a pernicious idea propagated by . . . Princeton historian Sean Wilentz.

Oral argument hints that we may have a 5-4 ruling allowing state legislatures to continue stacking the deck.

Ultimately, it isn’t a very good one.

Institutions matter. (No, seriously, they really, really matter).

David Gergen lives in a fantasy world.

Some context for ongoing discussions.

Free expression sometimes enables horrible crimes. How does a free society deal with that tension?

The President’s latest ravings are “very bad, very bad.”

Massachusetts Democrat Seth Moulton makes an argument familiar to OTB readers.

Why rational discourse seldom changes the minds of some people.

The key remains the military.

It’s been a rough two years under Trump, but America’s institutions are surviving.

A second Federal Judge has found that the Commerce Department violated the law when it moved to put a question about citizenship on the 2020 Census form.

The Saudis tortured an American citizen, but the Trump Administration doesn’t care.

With criminal charges and an election hanging over his head, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is looking to the political right for support and survival.

In what was basically a throwaway line, Joe Biden said something nice about Mike Pence. The reaction from his fellow Democrats says a lot about our current political culture, and none of it is good.

Nancy Pelosi is tired of Democrats voting to please their constituents.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is being charged with three charges of corruption even as he faces an election in just over a month.

And if you don’t know, now you know.

US policy is creating nonconstructive confrontation.

There’s only one solution to the D.C. statehood issue. It’s called retrocession.

The House of Representatives has begin the process of challenging the President’s recent declaration of a ‘national emergency’ at the southern border.

A North Carolina Congressional Election that was tainted by Absentee Ballot Fraud will be redone.

Justice Clarence Thomas argues that a 55-year-old precedent should be overturned.

There is a bit of a disjuncture between the terminology and the reality (but that does not excuse Trump’s current actions).

Some thoughts on the current mess.

President Trump’s impending decision to declare a national emergency to get funding for his border wall will quickly face serious legal challenges. It may be more vulnerable than the White House suspects.

The former Attorney General is seriously pondering a presidential bid. Seriously.

The arguments against withdrawing American forces from Afghanistan are becoming weaker and weaker.

Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren is the latest entrant into an already crowded field for the Democratic nomination.

His critique is rather telling.

The President is an ignoramus and a blowhard and a petulant child but he’s operating within the Constitutional limits of his office.

The Speaker was dealt a winning hand and played it with the skill of a seasoned pro. But the outcome was all but inevitable.