Outside the Beltway

A competent leader versus a lunatic would seem an easy choice. Alas.

Congress is doing something, at least.

The competition is slowly ratcheting up.

Assumptions of racial animus are overshadowing a story that’s outrageous enough on its own.

Denial, whining, and truth wrapped into one segment.

The writing is on the wall for simple-majority voting in the Senate.

Anyone who doubts that Republicans would fill a Supreme Court vacancy in 2020 is being incredibly naive.

At last week’s debate, Beto O’Rourke handed Republicans and gun rights advocates a nicely wrapped gift with his claim that he would seize guns from otherwise law-abiding Americans.

After a flood of stories saying the former Vice President is unsuitable for the modern era, the inevitable pushback is happening.

Not surprisingly, the President’s proposed shutdown deal is not being received well by Democrats on Capitol Hill.

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.

As the Senate prepares for a key procedural vote on the nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh this morning, the Judge’s fate remains up in the air. However, signs are pointing to reasons for Republican optimism.

This morning, President Trump took to Twitter to attack Dr. Christine Blasey Ford over her allegations against Judge Brett Kavanaugh.

Delaware Democratic Senator Tom Carper beat back a challenge from a ‘progressive” challenger in Thursday’s primary.

After four days of hearings, the fate of Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court seems assured.

The first day of the Kavanaugh confirmation hearings was much ado about pretty much nothing, but then that can be used to describe a process whose outcome is pretty much foreordained.

A small group of Senators is engaged in a seemingly quixotic effort to save DACA before the election.

Republicans joined with Democrats to advance a bill to protect Special Counsel Robert Mueller, but it’s unlikely to go anywhere beyond that.

For better or worse, Mike Pompeo will be confirmed as the 70th Secretary of State by the end of this week.

Despite facing headwinds in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Mike Pompeo will probably be confirmed as the next Secretary of State. That’s unfortunate.

Republicans on Capitol Hill and in positions of power are slavishly backing their President over their country. They should be ashamed.

The prospect for a fix to help DACA beneficiaries is looking gloomier than ever.

Congress seems no closer to a DACA deal than they were in January.

Despite mounting evidence and outrageous behavior, Republicans nationwide and on Capitol Hill continue to do the Administration’s dirty work. They’ll most likely live to regret it.

As the Federal Government shutdown moves into the work week, there are some rumors of a possible deal, but nothing concrete and the lack of trust between the two parties could make a deal hard to achieve.

President Trump called on Senate Republicans to eliminate the legislative filibuster to resolve the government shutdown. That’s not going to happen.

House and Senate Republicans say they have reached agreement on a final tax bill, and Democrats are engaging in an effort to delay a vote in the Senate until Doug Jones can be seated.

Donald Trump Jr. spoke yesterday with Senate investigators, and his answers raise more questions than they answer.

President Trump remains obsessed with the Russian investigation and continues to try to shut it down.

Big developments in the Russia investigation that could start making President Trump deeply uncomfortable.

The Senate Judiciary Committee voted to advance the nomination of Judge Neil Gorsuch even as it became inevitable that Republicans would be forced to invoke the ‘nuclear option’ to confirm him to the Supreme Court.

Attorney General Loretta Lynch will essentially recuse herself from making a decision about indictments in the investigation of Hillary Clinton’s email server.

Senate Democrats successfully blocked a final vote on the Iran Nuclear Deal, meaning that Congressional debate on the matter is effectively over.

At least on paper, Senate Democrats now have enough votes to block the Senate from voting on a resolution disapproving of the Iran Nuclear Deal.

President Obama now has enough votes in the Senate, and probably the House, to ensure that Congress cannot block the nuclear deal with Iran.

Senate Democrats are now just one vote away from being able to block a veto override, meaning that the effort to block the Iran Nuclear Deal will most certainly fail.

Facing his own Tea Party challenge, Richard Lugar reminds Republicans of an uncomfortable truth.

Does a little known provision in the 14th Amendment make the entire debt ceiling debate irrelevant?

Is the only possible motivation conservatives could possibly have for calling out the lunatic fringe a desire for the acceptance of liberals?

When conservatives start attacking one of their own for pointing out the obvious, you really have to wonder if they want to win.