Outside the Beltway

Historical precedents fall apart when we’re in a truly unprecedented time.

Every illegal immigrant would have a path to citizenship.

Kamala Harris will be very, very busy the next two years.

The zombie idea for ousting an erratic and dangerous President.

Some square pegs are being forced into some round holes for the sake of inclusion.

Why isn’t Joe Biden President already?

Gridlock doesn’t mean government stops. It just shifts who is governing.

Will he be a uniter or a divider?

Multiple reports have the Notre Dame graduate replacing Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

A long-winded and esoteric discussion about an elusive idea.

A defense of the indefensible.

Ok, so what should change?

Could a blue state governor be the future of the Republican Party?

It creates a veto gate that they are almost guaranteed to control when they need it.

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

We may be in a national crisis but it’s still politics as usual in Washington.

CBS did a lousy job.

In just three years in office, Donald Trump has succeeded in taking huge steps in transforming the judiciary for decades to come.

The men who gathered in Philadelphia to write the Constitution were geniuses. But they couldn’t predict the future.

Especially Senate inaction.

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

A Federal District court Judge in Alabama has blocked implementation of that state’s latest attempt to challenge Roe v. Wade

Senator Elizabeth Warren released a more detailed version of her ‘Medicare For All” plan late last week. It leaves much to be desired.

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.

The top ten candidates in the race for the Democratic nomination clashed last night in a debate that made clear the different ideological directions that this race is pulling their party.

A new poll finds that a majority of Americans oppose statehood for the District of Columbia.

A new poll shows the former Vice-President leading Senator Elizabeth Warren in her home state.

Kamala Harris is trying to jump-start her Presidential campaign with an idea for a new law, but it’s probably unconstitutional and would never get through Congress.

Mitch McConnell has had an unsurprising change of heart on the issue of Senate consideration of Supreme Court nominees in a Presidential election year.

Based on the early stages of the campaign for the 2020 Democratic Presidential nomination, it appears as though the party’s progressive wing has misread the signals being sent by the party’s voters.

We’ve soon see whether the current Supreme Court will overturn Roe v Wade.

Congressman Seth Moulton of Massachusetts is the latest Democrat to enter an already crowded field.

Senate Republicans are pushing for the end of minority obstruction—and the Democrats can’t wait.

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

Democratic candidates for President are quickly voicing support for marijuana legalization.

A novel proposal for making SCOTUS appointments more responsive to election outcomes.

While not subject to filibuster, it’s still subject to Presidential veto.

A new poll shows most Americans oppose President Trump’s border wall and support more liberal immigration laws.

The President is blaming Democrats for the fact that so many of his Ambassadors have not been confirmed. The truth, of course, is quite the opposite.

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

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.

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

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

Donald Trump is talking about a tax cut that appears to exist only in his own mind.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley says he would not consider a Supreme Court nominee in 2020. But does he really mean it?

The nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh is, effectively, assured. Democrats should be careful about how much further they push their opposition.

Day One of questions for Judge Brett Kavanaugh went about as you’d expect.

The confirmation hearings for Judge Brett Kavanaugh begin today, but the outcome seems foreordained.

Senate Democrats appear to be recognizing that there’s basically nothing they can do to stop the confirmation of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.

Initial polling on Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court find the public more divided than they have been for other recent SCOTUS picks, but that’s unlikely to impact the fate of his nomination.