Outside the Beltway

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

Claiming it was because of the weather President Trump chose to skip a visit to a cemetery at the site of one of the bloodiest battles involving Americans in World War One.

New reports indicate that Donald Trump was closely involved in the efforts to buy the silence of a Playboy model and a former adult film star.

Donald Trump’s lies became even more frequent during the recently-concluded campaign season.

President Trump has fired his Attorney General, a move than many are interpreting as the precursor to a move against Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

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.

When do we stop pretending that Fox News Channel is anything other than State Run Media for the Trump Administration?

Anti-Semitic violence has increased markedly over the past two years. So has the spread of far-right “anti-Globalist” conspiracy theories. This is not a coincidence.

President Trump wants to send more troops than we have in Syria and Iraq combined to the border to deal with a non-existent threat.

With one week to go before Election Day, Democrats seem well-positioned to gain control of the House while Republicans seem likely to hold on to the Senate.

The blatant stoking of irrational fear as campaign politics.

Just days after appearing to condone donning blackface in the style of a 19th Century minstrel show, Megyn Kelly is out at NBC News.

Newt Gingrich has endorsed President Trump’s use of the rhetoric of Josef Stalin to attack the American news media.

In the wake of attempted bombing attacks on people he has criticized, the President is blaming the media for poisonous political rhetoric. He needs to look in the mirror.

President Trump’s private phone calls are apparently a major source of intelligence for foreign nations.

The Saudi Foreign Minister expanded on his nation’s utterly implausible explanation for the death of Jamal Khashoggi

Yet more evidence against the Saudis in the murder of Jamal Khashoggi.

Those rambling campaign rally speeches the President loves to give aren’t getting the kind of coverage they used to, not even from his favorite news channel.

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

Hope Hicks jumps from one pro-Trump venue to another.

With four weeks to go until Election Day, Donald Trump and the Republicans are continuing to stoke the divisions laid bare by the Kavanaugh nomination.

The Merrick Garland precedent is power politics, nothing more.

Thoughts that have been bouncing around in my head for over a week.

After a long and contentious battle, Brett Kavanaugh has been confirmed to become the 114th Supreme Court Justice.

With the support of two holdout Senators, the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh now appears to be all but official.

Brett Kavanaugh is expressing some regrets over his performance last Thursday, but it’s largely far too little, far too late.

While I was originally content to let Brett Kavanaugh sail through to confirmation, I now feel compelled to oppose his nomination to be a Supreme Court Justice.

A telling contrast of two Georgetown Prep schoolmates.

After eight hours of testimony, the only impression a non-partisan mind could be left with from the testimony of Christine Blasey Ford and Brett Kavanaugh is that we need a full investigation of the charges against the Supreme Court nominee. Unfortunately, we’re not going to get that.

An ugly day for the United States Senate and the United States of America.

Less than a day before a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, a third woman has come forward with new allegations involving Judge Brett Kavanaugh.

Republicans have set a Judiciary Committee vote for less than a day after hearing from Christine Blasey Ford and Judge Brett Kavanaugh.

In what appears to be a first, Judge Brett Kavanaugh took to the media to defend his nomination. Not surprisingly, he chose a friendly venue.

Based on their own rhetoric, it seems clear that Republicans don’t really care what Christine Blasey Ford has to say regarding what happened to her in 1982.

Thinking about the political calculus.

Trumpism is a direct by-product of the poisonous populism of the Tea Party movement, and they’ve both taken over the Republican Party.

Donald Trump has been in office just over 600 days, and he’s proven beyond any doubt that he doesn’t care if what he says is the truth or not.

Former President Obama took on his successor in his first major political speeches since leaving office.

The #MeToo movement brings down the head of a Fortune 500 company.

The GOP’s hold on the Bob Corker’s Senate seat in Tennessee may be in jeopardy.

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

Entertainers work for a living, too.

Social media has altered the way writers and readers interact in odd ways.

The West Virginia Supreme Court has ruled that a candidate who lost the GOP primary for Senate cannot run as the nominee of another party due to the state’s “sore loser” law.

Less than twelve hours into the General Election campaign for Florida Governor, Ron DeSantis is already making mistakes.

As expected, Rick Scott easily won the GOP nomination for Senate in Florida, setting up one of the most highly anticipated Senate races of the year.

Florida voters in the Republican and Democratic parties have set up a Gubernatorial race that provides a stark choice on the table for Sunshine State voters in a race that will likely have national implications moving forward.

With just 72 days to go until Election Day, the chances that the Democrats will take control of at least one chamber of Congress are looking quite good.

One moment at a campaign rally in October 2008 defines better than anything else what American politics lost when John McCain passed away.