Outside the Beltway

The tough guy actor best known for the “Smokey And The Bandit” movies has passed away at the age of 82.

Most Americans disapprove of the President’s handling of our relationship with Russia, and foreign policy more generally, in the wake of the Helsinki Summit. That’s not having much of an impact on his overall job approval, though.

Sarah Huckabee Sanders was asked to leave a restaurant in Virginia last night, and the incident raises questions of how far we should let politics infiltrate everyday life.

Earlier this week, the Illinois legislature ratified the Equal Rights Amendment. What’s unclear is if this act has any meaning at all.

We have a generation of schoolkids who aren’t even surprised when there’s a shooting at their school. That’s a problem.

Trump suffered another court loss yesterday that opens him up to some potentially embarrassing questions.

The DNC is backing centrist candidates in a bid to win traditionally Republican districts. Party activists are not happy about it.

While the Trump Administration slowly tries to remake the Federal Judiciary, states are moving to pass radical new challenges to Roe v. Wade.

A new lawsuit seeks to have the 2012 DACA program declared unconstitutional.

Stormy Daniels is suing the President for defamation after he accused her of lying about a threat made to her seven years ago.

Barbara Bush, only the second woman in history to be the wife and mother of a U.S. President, has died at the age of 92.

Trump’s tariff plan isn’t going over well in farm country, and that could cause problems for the GOP in November.

Yet more troubling news about the proposed citizenship question on the 2020 Census.

A state trial court Judge in New York has ruled that a defamation lawsuit filed in Manhattan against President Trump can go forward.

Mississippi has passed a law that seems designed to directly challenge the underpinnings of Roe v. Wade.

Despite the activism we’ve seen in the wake of the school shooting in Florida, it’s unlikely that we’ll see significant Congressional action on guns.

The White House’s immigration plan is facing opposition in both chambers of Congress from moderate and conservative Republicans alike.

With the results from Alabama. the GOP faces a hard road ahead defending its majority in the Senate.

It appears that Rex Tillerson’s days at the State Department may be numbered, but his proposed replacement leaves a lot to be desired.

New York Senator Kristen Gillibrand says Bill Clinton should have resigned over his affair with Monica Lewinsky. Raising the question of just how stringently we should apply the standards of today to the events of the past.

President Obama spoke out yesterday against his successor and the America he has created.

Despite the fact that everyone seems to agree that Iran is complying with the nuclear weapons deal, President Trump took steps that will undermine that agreement and do serious damage to American credibility around the world.

Reports are indicating that President Trump will decertify the nuclear weapons deal with Iran. This would be a foolish and potentially dangerous mistake.

The fundamental premise at the heart of the immigration bill that President Trump backed earlier this month has no merit whatsoever.

Donald Trump has had harsher things to say about Rosie O’Donnell than he did about the people responsible for yesterday’s violence. That says something about him.

The President has endorsed a bill that would cut legal immigration in half.

Robert Mueller seems to be getting closer to the President, and the Administration is responding by seeking to undermine his investigation.

On the second anniversary of its decision in Obergefell, the Supreme Court struck another blow in favor of LGBT rights.

President Trump has actually made a good pick for National Security Adviser. As with the rest of his foreign policy team, though, the question is if he’ll listen to him.

There were fireworks on the floor of the Senate last night, but it was really just politics as usual.

Two Republican Senators are introducing legislation that would result in drastic reductions in the number of people allowed into the country legally.

Janet Reno, who served as Attorney General for nearly all of the Bill Clinton Administration, has died at 78.

If polls are any indication, voters are set to legalize marijuana in five more states on Tuesday.

The personal, the political, and the Foundation are so intertwined as to be one enterprise.

As we head into the second Presidential debate, Hillary Clinton looks to be in very good shape.

With just hours before the first debate, and six weeks until Election Day, the race for President remains tight.

Evan McMullin’s quixotic campaign for President continues.

An amplification on the question of likability.

Another sign of a weak economy as the Federal Reserve considers rate hikes and the Presidential campaign moves forward.

The “independent conservative” running for President is finding it hard to even get on the ballot.

The second night of the Democratic Convention seemed much calmer than the first, as the Clinton campaign moves forward toward the biggest speech of Hillary Clinton’s life.

The 2016 Republican Convention is barely halfway over, but some Republicans are already looking ahead to 2020.

Hillary Clinton’s extreme carelessness with classified information probably won’t cost her the election, but it should.

The Veepstakes continues.

Californians are set to vote on marijuana legalization in November and, this time, it looks like it will pass.

The Trump campaign is out with its own ‘short list’ of potential running mates.

Pfizer has become the latest drug maker from barring its products from being used in executions.

The GOP race for President takes yet another bizarre turn.

The second place finisher in the Republican primaries is looking like the first loser.

Putting Donald Trump at the top of the ticket would likely lead to an Electoral College disaster for Republicans.