Outside the Beltway

Public trust in Congress is at an all time low, again, and the public doesn’t trust either party to fix things.

The Republican “Pledge to America” is chock full of photographs of Real Americans. And they’re disproportionately old white people.

The Democratic Party seems to have decided that the best way to begin the final leg of the midterm election campaign is with a legislative cave-in of epic proportions.

Some thoughts on the Pledge.

In 1994, it was the Contract With America. In 2010, it’s the Pledge To America. But does it really mean anything regardless of what it’s called ?

This November, California could become the first state in the nation to completely legalize the possession and sale of marijuana. And the battle over the ballot initiative is having an impact on other statewide races.

The Republican Leadership is treating Lisa Murkowski very differently than the Democrats handled Joe Lieberman in 2006.

One Republican analyst thinks that President Obama could learn a few leadership lessons from Vito and Michael Corleone. In order to do that, though, the President would need to stop acting like the weakest of the Corleone brothers.

While she continues basking in the glory of her surprise victory, Christine O’Donnell is still dodging questions about potentially serious violations of the law.

For the moment, the Tea Party movement is helping pull the GOP out of a slump that seemed like it would continue for a long time. Will it last, or will the movement end up doing for Republicans what the left has done for Democrats ?

While it will be difficult, the idea that Lisa Murkowski could win a write-in bid to retain her Senate seat is not at all implausible.

Lisa Murkowski is the worst kind of sore loser candidate, willing to screw over her party’s voters and her own donors to keep her seat

Conservatives have latched on to a few words in a decade-old article by Democrat Chris Coons in their efforts to boost the candidacy of Christine O’Donnell in Delaware.

Christine O’Donnell’s victory in Delaware Tuesday has made it less likely that the GOP will be able to take control of the Senate, but they still have an excellent shot of making substantial gains that will transform Congress’s Upper House.

Sarah Palin had a very good track record in her primary season endorsements, but it’s not at all clear that she will have much of an impact on the 2010 General Election.