Outside the Beltway

The House wasted a day yesterday, now it’s crunch time.

Are these four men our last, best hope for a deal that will end the shutdown and avoid breaching the debt ceiling?

With the House’s proposed deal reaching an impasse, the Senate is now taking center stage.

If nothing else, Ted Cruz’s quixotic mission has succeeded in cementing him in the minds of Republican voters.

Opposing interventionism and unnecessary and unwise military engagements is not isolationism.

The pioneering journalist David Frost has died, aged 74 years.

Presidents have gotten away with ignoring Congress when it comes to foreign military adventures for a very long time.

As President Obama’s red line has been crossed more brazenly, he continues to sound reluctant to intervene in Syria while positioning forces to do just that.

It may be Rick Santorum’s “turn” but he’s too harsh and extreme to win the nomination.

The president’s 2008 rival has gone from bitter foe to go-to deal broker.

The Purple Gang Edition OTB Caption Contest^TM is now over.

Colonel Bud Day, who earned a Medal of Honor leading Vietnam POWs, had died, aged 88 years.

Lindsey Graham is playing cynical political games with a dangerous part of the world.

Senators John McCain and Carl Levin have demanded answers from General Martin Dempsey on Syria. Can they handle the truth?

As many as 500 convicted al Qaeda terrorists were released Sunday night as part of a surge of violence that has killed thousands since April.

Would your cable bill be cheaper if you could just subscribe to the channels you wanted to watch?

The Senate may be headed for an historic confrontation today if an 11th hour deal isn’t reached.

The 10th anniversary of McCain-Feingold teaches a lesson we should already have learned.

Words don’t always mean what you think they mean.

There seem to be some signs that defense hawks in the GOP are concerned about Rand Paul’s growing popularity in the party.

There are risks to Republicans in blocking immigration reform, but there are also incentives for them to block immigration reform. Getting past that contradiction to passage isn’t going to be easy.

John Boehner clearly wants to see an immigration bill passed this year, but he has a very narrow path to victory.

Two polls indicate that most Americans oppose the President’s latest moves on Syria. This makes sense considering actual policy there seems to be entirely incoherent.

The U.S. is now confirming that the Syrian government has used chemical weapons. What’s next?

Outrage over leaks like those that Edward Snowden makes doesn’t exist when its politicians doing the leaking.

Former President Bill Clinton says President Obama should ignore the polls and intervene in Syria.

Revelations about the NSA’s data mining programs don’t seem to be having a significant impact on public opinion.

Sometimes it seems like all John McCain does is appear on Sunday morning news shows. The problem goes deeper than that, though.

Mitt Romney returns from the political graveyard.

The sequestration cuts are two months old, and it seems pretty clear that the claims of doom we heard before they went into effect were heavily exaggerated.

We’re actually not speculating about who might be running any more than we used to.

John McCain is taking a break from advocating yet another war in the Middle East to make war against cable television companies.

The American people aren’t panicking.

Is someone who’s only be a Senator for just over 100 days a serious contender for the Republican nomination in 2016?

Several Senators who voted against the Manchin/Toomey background checks bill have suffered in the polls, but it’s unclear if that matters in the long run.

John McCain is right that we shouldn’t send ground troops to Syria, but his idea for increased U.S. intervention in the country’s civil war is still too risky.

John McCain’s problems in 2008 went far beyond an economic crisis.

President Obama may regret drawing a line in the sand over Syrian chemical weapons.