Outside the Beltway

When the facts make for a poor defense, attack the process.

The White House is doubling down on its illegitimate stonewalling of valid Congressional document requests.

The evidence piles up.

The escalation has been rapid, dramatic, and warranted.

Late last week, a Federal Judge blocked a California law requiring candidates for President and other offices to make copies of their tax returns public.

Once again, a fight is set to brew over funding for the President’s border wall. Will he force another shutdown in an election year?

But, our process to elect the president is highly flawed.

Despite having utterly mishandled both areas when they actually held power, Republicans think they can win back the House of Representatives by focusing on the budget deficit and health care reform.

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.

Republicans managed to pull off a narrow win in North Carolina yesterday, but they shouldn’t be celebrating.

Democrat Jon Ossoff has thrown his hat in the ring to challenge David Perdue for Georgia’s Senate seat in 2020.

The Trump Administration from projects to build on-base schools and daycare facilities to spend on his border wall.

Georgia Senator Johnny Isakson will retire at the end of 2019, setting up a contest in 2020 to fill the remainder of his term.

Joe Walsh, a former Tea Party stalwart who served in Congress nine years ago, has thrown his hat in the ring against President Trump for the 2020 GOP Presidential Nomination.

The junior Senator from Massachusetts could be facing a big challenge in 2020.

The Federal Budget Deficit rose 27% in July, putting it on course for the $1 trillion by the end of September.

The Trump campaign and several other parties have filed lawsuits challenging California’s new law requiring candidates for President to release copies of their tax returns.

Thanks to a ruling by the Puerto Rican Supreme Court, the island Commonwealth has its third Governor in less than a week.

In the battle for Senate control in 2020, the conditions appear to favor Republicans. At least for now.

A Republican State Legislator in Nebraska says things that other Republicans don’t have the courage to say.

The only African-American Republican in the House of Representatives is retiring, and that should worry Republicans nationwide.

Embattled Governor Ricardo A. Rosselló has stepped down but succession issues surround the man who took the oath of office late yesterday.

The House Democratic Caucus is becoming more divided on the issue of moving forward with impeachment.

The Mueller hearings don’t appear to have moved the needle of public opinion when it comes to impeachment.

The House Judiciary Committee is seeking to obtain the material presented to a Federal Grand Jury by former Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

Dan Coats is stepping down as Director of National Intelligence, and President Trump wants to replace him with an inexperienced, obsequious toady.

The Supreme Court handed the President a victory last night, ruling that the Plaintiffs in a lawsuit challenging his funding of the border wall did not have standing to challenge his diversion of Defense Department funds. This may only be a temporary victory, though.

In contrast to the idea of granting statehood to the District of Columbia, the American public appears to strongly support statehood for Puerto RIco.

Former South Carolina Congressman and Governor Mark Sanford is reportedly considering an intra-party challenge to President Trump

California’s legislature has passed a law purporting to require candidates for President to release copies of their tax returns, but it’s likely to face legal challenges if it becomes law.

The legal and political showdown between Congress and the White House has entered into a new stage.

House Democrats rejected an effort by a member of the progressive wing of the party to force an impeachment inquiry against the President.

For the first time in a century, a chamber of Congress has voted to condemn a sitting President. That won’t stop this President.

Just over nine years after retiring from the Supreme Court, former Associate Justice John Paul Stevens has passed away at the age of 99.

The House of Representatives passed a defense spending bill that seeks to limit Presidential authority when it comes to striking Iran and aideing the Saudi war on Yemen.

Trump’s self-congratulatory July 4th nonsense bankrupted the District of Columbia’s security fund, now they’re seeking reimbursement.

The House Judiciary Committee has upped the ante in the showdown between the Trump Administration and Congress.

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals heard argument yesterday in a case that could radically impact health care coverage for millions of Americans.

Later today, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals will hear argument in a case that could upend the Affordable Care Act.

Another court loss for Trump and his border wall.

In the wake of an adverse Supreme Court ruling, the Trump Administration has decided not to include a citizenship question on the 2020 Census.

New polling suggests that the President may not be benefiting from the relatively healthy economy as much as expected.

The job laid out by the Framers in Article II of the Constitution has expanded a mite.

The Supreme Court rejected an effort by the Virginia House of Delegates to overturn a Federal Court ruling that the state’s district lines constituted gerrymandering by race. But they didn’t rule on the merits of the appeal.

Hope Hicks, a former top aide to Donald Trump during the campaign and in the White House, will testify before the House Judiciary Committee.

There isn’t a lot of legislating going on.

With the Trump Administration continuing to stonewall investigations, the House of Representatives is seeking to ramp up the pressure.

The House of Representatives passed a bill that would extend protection to DACA beneficiaries and other Dreamers, but it’s likely to die in the Senate.

The President’s foolish tariffs against Mexico are finally causing many Republican Senators to stand up against him.

While the drumbeat for impeachment of the President continues on the left, political reality suggests caution.