Outside the Beltway

There was no progress on resolving the government shutdown today, and little hope that anything will happen before late next week.

While the political media is spending a lot of time talking about it, the actual impact of this latest government shutdown is likely to be limited and possibly even unnoticeable to most Americans.

The government entered its third shutdown of the year with little sign of an immediate resolution.

With just hours to go, a partial government shutdown is becoming more and more likely.

Hours before the House was set to vote on a temporary funding bill for the government, President Trump has apparently changed his mind.

Tennessee will have an open Senate seat in 2020 thanks to Lamar Alexander’s decision to retire at the end of his current term.

The Senate passed a bill that keeps the government funded through the beginning of February, but fails to provide any funding for the President’s border wall.

The Senate overwhelmingly passed major reforms in Federal sentencing and related laws. As the name of the bill implies, it’s a first step, but a good first step.

With three days to go before a government shutdown, there are at least some signs that the President may be backing away from his threats to shut down the government over funding for his border wall.

With the Friday night deadline fast approaching, nobody in Washington seems to know what’s going on.

Republicans scored a win in Court last week, but it seems likely to lead to a political loss in the long-term.

In a small, but meaningful, step, the Senate has rebuked the Administration’s policies toward the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Jon Kyl was named to replace John McCain back in September, but as expected he’s already announcing that he’ll be leaving at the end of the year.

House Republicans reportedly don’t have the votes to fund the President’s border wall.

The Trump Administration appears to think that the Budget Deficit and National Debt aren’t a big deal because we can just grow our way out of the problem. This is highly unlikely to happen.

Nancy Pelosi is apparently close to a deal with dissident Democrats that will keep her in power until at least 2022.

Senator Mitch McConnell and others are blocking a criminal justice reform bill currently pending in the Senate.

This month’s budget fight is likely the last chance the President will have to get any funding for his border wall.

Trump has reportedly told aides that he doesn’t really care about reports of an approaching crisis of the budget deficit and national debt because he’ll be out of office before it becomes a problem.

Mia Love, recently narrowly defeated in her bid for re-election, has some parting words for her party. They probably won’t listen, but they should.

Nancy Pelosi won a key vote yesterday on the road to returning as Speaker of the House again in January.

In the end, the race between Cindy Hyde-Smith and Mike Espy was not even close.

A brewing fight over funding for the President’s border wall could throw a monkey wrench into plans to pass a budget by next Friday.

Once again, people on the left are complaining that Ruth Bader Ginsburg didn’t retire when they wanted her to.

Three Democratic Senators are suing the Acting Attorney General, asserting that his appointment was unconstitutional.

Sherrod Brown pulled off the only statewide Democratic victory in Ohio on November 6th. Because of that, he’s being looked at as a potential 2020 candidate for President.

Another part of the country that was once a Republican stronghold is now almost completely blue.

With the recounts over we can officially say that Rick Scott will be the next Senator from Florida.

One of the last Republican strongholds in California is now completely blue.

Now that the election is over, President Trump and his sycophants in the right-wing media seem to have completely forgotten about the “invading” “caravan” of Central American asylum seekers.

While the outcome in the Florida Governor’s Race is clear, the Senate race remains up in the air and headed for a hand recount that, in the end, is unlikely to change the outcome of the race.

Senator Jeff Flake is threatening to vote against President Trump’s judicial nominees unless he gets a floor vote on a bill to protect Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

With their House majority secure, Democrats must now select their leadership team for the next two years. It’s not going smoothly.

Democrats have flipped the Senate seat currently held by Republican Jeff Flake.

Democratic pickups in several state legislatures could impact redistricting after the 2020 Census.

Arizona Democrat Kyrsten Sinema appears to be headed toward victory.

Over the weekend, it was confirmed that the man once referred to as Vladimir Putin’s favorite Congressman was defeated in last week’s midterms.

Florida has begun the recount process in both the Senate and Governor’s races. Where it goes from here is anyone’s guess.

Beto O’Rourke should consider running again in 2020, but not for President.

With the election over, New York’s junior Senator seems to have changed her mind about running for President.

The Senate race in Arizona has been close since Election Night, but Democratic nominee Kyrsten Sinema has pulled ahead.

Somewhere, Tim Russert is smiling.

Whether as candidates or as voters, Democrats can thank women for many of their victories on Tuesday.

As expected, the midterm elections ended up being a split result that gives Democrats and Republicans alike reason to celebrate.

It’s all over but the vote counting.

With most forecasts assuming that Republicans will at least lose control of the House, the odds are that the GOP will react to that by moving further to the right.

Tip O’Neill was famous for once having advised his fellow Democrats that “all politics is local.” That’s not true anymore, and that’s unfortunate.

Faced with the probability of losses today, President Trump is already getting ready to blame everyone but himself.

For better or worse, here are my projections for the midterm elections.

The GOP is likely to lose control of the House of Representatives tomorrow, but could this actually help Trump?