Outside the Beltway

t’s been more than two-and-a half years since the United States passed major legislation.

Here we go again.

For the moment, Republicans appear to be blocking Chuck Hagel’s nomination to be Secretary of Defense but they don’t seem to know why they’re doing it.

The smear campaign against defense secretary nominee Chuck Hagel has taken a bizarre turn.

Chuck Hagel will be confirmed, but the campaign against him tells us much about the current state of Republican foreign policy

Once again, the filibuster survives. Nobody should be surprised.

Once again, Harry Reid is pursuing a far less ambitious filibuster reform package than originally threatened.

Presidential honeymoons aren’t what they used to be, and President Obama’s second term honeymoon isn’t likely to last very long.

You can’t always get what you want.

Representative democracy is a process of delegation of power to agents who act on behalf of citizens. The process of delegation matters.

An attempt to declare the filibuster unconstitutional has ended in failure.

With less than a week left, the odds of a deal to avert the “Fiscal Cliff” seem longer than ever.

Well. medium length anyway.

Harry Reid appears to be short of the votes he needs to enact filibuster reform.

Obama thinks he has a mandate to raise taxes on high earners. Republicans think they have a mandate to stop him.

Once again, Senate Democrats are talking about filibuster reform, but will they actually follow through?

Why I supported Mitt Romney despite his constant flip-flopping, fibbing, and fecklessness.

President Obama had some prominent liberal journalists over for coffee.

Not surprisingly, television and reality don’t really coincide.

It’s looking less likely that the GOP will be able to gain control of the Senate.

There is much to critique in Washington, but the nexus of the governance problem at the moment is the GOP.

If the GOP wins in November, there will be very few actual barriers in the way if they really want to repeal the PPACA.

Electing Romney hardly means repeal of the PPACA, even if he will make it sound that way.

In advance of tomorrow’s ruling, some pundits on the left are displaying some very odd views on the role of the law in American politics.

Congressmen are investing hundreds of millions of dollars in stock in companies over which they have oversight. And it’s perfectly legal.

The history of the DREAM Act underscores the significance of the 60-vote Senate.

As of today, there are 75 vacant Federal Judgeships, including one that has been open for seven years.

The Diplomacy By Other Means Edition OTB Caption Contest^TM is now over.

The GOP has a serious problem with the Latino vote, and it may too late to fix it.

Eduardo Saverin has become a political whipping boy.

Common Cause has filed a specious lawsuit alleging that the filibuster is unconstitutional.

Recall elections in a hyper-partisan atmosphere are not a good thing.

Harry Reid is apparently regretting not going forward with filibuster reform in January 2011.

Charlie Savage documents a major shift in Barack Obama’s philosophy of presidential authority.

The Senate didn’t have a productive 2011. Is this just a case of laziness?