Outside the Beltway

The government is shut down and Washington is playing the usual blame game. In reality, there’s plenty of blame to go around, and one of the guilty parties is the American people.

Due mostly to cowardice and naked self-interest, you shouldn’t expect many other Republicans to speak out against Trump in the near future.

One of the few Republicans willing to speak out against Donald Trump is retiring at the end of his current term.

Americans support allowing Dreamers to stay in the country, and most of them also support allowing them to eventually become citizens.

A recent uptick in retirements from Congressional Republicans is leading some Republicans to become concerned about the party’s prospects in 2018.

Trump isn’t going to win any regional popularity awards in LA.

They may both be Republicans, but the relationship between the President and the Senate Majority Leader is bad and seems to be getting worse.

Donald Trump’s core supporters in the Republican Party remain intensely loyal, and that seems unlikely to change.

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

Finally, “law and order” Joe Arpaio gets what he has long deserved.

A new study shows that Baby Boomers no longer account for the largest segment of voters in the United States.

#RulesMatter

Jeb Bush predicted that Donald Trump would preside over a “chaos Presidency,” and he was right.

Trump’s job approval numbers continue to sink.

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke suggests building Trump’s Wall on Mexican territory.

A major legislative defeat for Paul Ryan, the House GOP, and President Trump.

All the effects of a wall, given its cost, needs to be taken into consideration.

Two Republican Senators are introducing legislation that would result in drastic reductions in the number of people allowed into the country legally.

Alabama’s Jeff Sessions will become the nation’s top law enforcement officer. That’s not a good thing.

Even if Donald Trump loses next month, the political forces inside the GOP he tapped into are likely to remain very powerful.

It’s the traditional start of the campaign season, and the race for President is getting close, at least at the national level.

As expected, John McCain easily defeated his primary opponent yesterday.

With ten weeks to go ,there’s been some tightening in the polls but Hillary Clinton continues to maintain a commanding lead in the race for the White House.

John McCain is bidding for a sixth term in office, with a challenge from the right in tomorrow’s primary and Donald Trump at the top of the ticket in November.

Sorry Donald Trump, but most Americans believe that people here illegally deserve a path to citizenship and oppose building a border wall.

Donald Trump is signaling a big shift in his immigration position.

America’s largest voting bloc is heavily turned off by Donald Trump, and that is posing long-term problems for Republicans in general.

The Supreme Court heard oral argument in the case challenging the President’s deportation relief plan, but it’s unlikely we’ll see a ruling on the merits.

With the Republican nomination fight down to two incredibly unappealing candidates, some Republican insiders are talking about looking elsewhere for a nominee.

A big night in the Republican race for President leaves Donald Trump as the only candidate realistically situated to be anywhere near a majority of delegates by the time the primaries end in June.

The eighth Democratic debate raises the question of whether we really need this many debates.

Donald Trump is motivating people! The problem for Republicans is that he’s motivating them to become citizens so they can vote against him and, potentially, other Republicans.

Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions became the latest prominent Republican to endorse Donald Trump, but there are a lot more Republicans who are starting to panic over what Trump could do to their party.

Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz landed some punches on Donald Trump last night, but it’s doubtful that they changed the nature of the race.

For now at least, the Bush Dynasty has seen the end of its involvement in national politics.

Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are battling today for votes in a caucus whose outcome could go either way.

Marco Rubio was the man in the cross hairs in last night’s Republican debate.

Clinton is a virtual lock for the Democratic nomination. Rubio is the most plausible Republican winner in a messy field.

Many analysts are making the argument that Marco Rubio is the GOP’s best hope to win the General Election in 2016. That may be true, but before he can get there he needs to find a way to win the GOP nomination.

We’re in another Presidential election cycle so it must be time to speculate about Michael Bloomberg again.

The Supreme Court agreed to hear an appeal in what is guaranteed to be a high profile case heading into the 2016 elections.

There are signs that Ted Cruz’s rise in the Hawkeye State will be short-lived.

In a new Gallup poll, Republicans say they want a “conservative” as their Presidential nominee, but they may regret what happens if they get the kind of hard-right conservative they seem to be thinking of.

Donald Trump and Ted Cruz are surging in state polls as we head toward the holidays.

Previewing the fifth Republican debate, and the last Republican debate of 2015.

Much more so than in the past, the race for the Republican Presidential race has become a battle to define what it means to be a ‘conservative.’ Especially on issues like immigration and national security, one side seems to be winning the battle.

A new poll shows that a near majority of Republicans agree with even some of Donald Trump’s most controversial statements on immigration.

A new Gallup poll shows public approval of Congress once again approaching historic lows, but it means far less than anyone thinks.