Outside the Beltway

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

If we’re going to have a death penalty, he was its poster boy.

Johnetta Benton was caught on tape in a 15-minute rant against President Trump’s campaign slogan. She ain’t wrong.

Kids are more likely to be killed driving to school than shot while there. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try and prevent them.

What the heck is going on in Kentucky and Tennessee?

I don’t see how the state legislature making tax decisions on the basis of the public position an company takes is legal under the 14th Amendment. 

The President would like to copy Singapore’s zero-tolerance policy. The US Constitution stands in his way.

The U.S. Army is once again embroiled in an internecine fight over hats.

The students who survived last week’s mass shooting in Parkland, Florida are speaking out, and some on the right are responding by engaging in personal attacks and spreading conspiracy theories.

One of the main objections that many on the right seem to have to proposals to legalize DACA beneficiaries and other illegal immigrants is the idea that they could eventually become citizens. There’s no good reason they shouldn’t be able to do so.

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

The GOP’s potential troubles in 2018 don’t just exist at the Congressional level.

The Supreme Court declined to hear a major case regarding discrimination based on sexual orientation, but the issue is likely to come up again in the very near future.

Donald Trump is without question the pettiest, most vindictive person to ever occupy the Oval Office.

With less than forty-eight hours to go, the race for Virginia’s Governor is tighter than ever.

The Las Vegas shooting provides a good opportunity to enact a common sense gun control law that even Second Amendment advocates agree is called for.

Trump loses his HHS Secretary amid a growing scandal involving the use of private and government jets by Cabinet officials.

Early on the morning of Sept. 26, 1983, Lieutenant Colonel Stanislav Petrov helped to prevent the outbreak of nuclear war.

The battle over Confederate statues that was resurrected by the violence in Charlottesville is off the front pages, but that doesn’t mean it’s over quite yet.

Texas suffers another legal setback in its effort to pass a Voter ID law.

The First Amendment protects the rights even of the people who gathered in Charlottesville to promote hatred and violence, However, it does not shield them from the consequences of that speech.

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

We mourn Charlottesville because Donald J. Trump, the President of the United States, made clear in no uncertain terms that in his mind there was little distinction between those in Charlottesville who pursued the un-American “values” of soil, blood, and racial dominance and those who pursued the ideals of the American Constitution.

Facts are stubborn things.

The twice-removed Chief Justice is likely getting a promotion.

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

Vice-President Pence is advocating the admission of Georgia into NATO. That would be a bad idea.

Senate Republicans are back home and hearing from their constituents on health care reform. It’s not going well for them.

The Supreme Court has once again declined to hear an appeal in a Second Amendment case.

Some thoughts on the current state of the Democrats.

In one of the most closely watched Special Elections in American history, the outcome turned out to be not entirely surprising.

Maryland and the District of Columbia are suing President Trump based on alleged violations of two provisions of the Constitution that have never been litigated before.

Democratic nominee Jon Ossoff is leading in a race that Republicans should be winning easily.

Greg Gianforte assaulted a reporter. Now he’s going to Congress, but the outcome of the election really shouldn’t be a surprise.

There’s a Special Election in Montana tomorrow, and the Democratic candidate is performing far above expectations.

Six months after the election, the postmortems of the Clinton campaign all seem to have one thing in common, they all point at things other than the candidate and her campaign as being the reason she lost.

Democrats came close to picking up what has been a solidly Republican seat for nearly forty years but ended up falling short. Instead, we’ll have a runoff in two months.

President Trump’s job approval woes are starting to impact the GOP as a whole.

Republicans held on to Mike Pompeo’s seat in the House, but the outcome was closer than many expected.

The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 bars discrimination based on sexual orientation, but its reasoning is questionable at best.

The tiny Balkan nation of Montenegro is set to become the latest member of the NATO alliance despite the fact that there is seemingly no good reason for it.

The President’s choice for Labor Secretary withdrew his name from consideration yesterday, but this is just the latest example of what has been a transition that has largely consisted of fumble after fumble by the Trump team.

With two votes last night, President Trump’s Cabinet is coming together.

Despite two Republican defections, Betsy DeVos was confirmed today as Secretary of Education.

Yet more incoherent economic policy from the Tweeter in Chief. A border tax will mean that Americans will undoubtedly pay for at least part of the Great Wall of Trump™.

Another television icon has passed away.