Outside the Beltway

For reasons only he can understand. South Carolina’s senior Senator will be entering the race for the White House early next month.

Two Republican candidates for President say that Republican elected officials should simply ignore the Supreme Court if it strikes down bans on same-sex marriage.

A Federal Appeals Court has ruled that the N.S.A.’s data mining program is illegal, but its ruling may not have a very big impact.

A new poll has some bad news for Jeb Bush in the Hawkeye State, which leads to the idea that maybe he shouldn’t waste too much time there to begin with.

There must be something odd in the water in the Lone Star State, because a bizarre conspiracy theory seems to have taken root there.

Ben Carson is running for President.

Rand Paul bucks Republican orthodoxy on Iraq, Libya, and negotiations with Iran.

Tomorrow promises to be an historic day at the Supreme Court, but it’s been a long legal, political, and social battle.

Marco Rubio is often described as one of the GOP’s leaders on foreign policy, but a close look reveals a decided lack of substance.

Less than two weeks after entering the race, Florida Senator Marco Rubio is at the top of the GOP field in a new poll.

Former Hewlett Packard CEO, and failed Senate candidate, Carly Fiorina will be running for President for some reason.

And the fun part is that his main motive for running appears to be the opportunity to troll Rand Paul.

Conditioning an Iranian nuclear deal on recognition of Israel is foolish, unrealistic, and very bad diplomacy.

Ben Carson will be entering the race for President next month, but don’t pretend for a minute that he’s a serious candidate.

Marco Rubio is the first Republican in the race who actually has a plausible chance to win the nomination, but it’s not going to be easy.

Rand Paul has changed position on several foreign policy issues, but he doesn’t seem to want to talk about it.

Rand Paul is the latest Republican to enter the race, but his path to even becoming a contender is a difficult one at best.

Jeb Bush is leading the latest poll of the 2016 Republican race and Ted Cruz has surged since he entered the race, but the race is just beginning.

Rand Paul has been cozying up to social conservatives lately, but he risks alienating the people most likely to support his campaign for the White House.

Kentucky has offered the Supreme Court a defense of its ban on same-sex marriage that seems laughable.

Florida Senator Marco Rubio is getting ready to jump into the race for President, but he has an uphill fight ahead of him.

Ted Cruz kicks off with the first of what is likely to be a string of candidates getting into the 2016 race in the coming month.

Rand Paul now says he signed the Cotton Letter to strengthen the Administration’s bargaining position.

Two weeks after the email story broke, there’s no sign that Hillary Clinton is losing ground in the 2016 race.

Ubiquitous tracking isn’t all bad.

Rand Paul is carrying on a family tradition, winning the CPAC straw poll won many times by his father Ron.

With three days to go, there are signs the GOP is ready to give up on its showdown over DHS funding.

The Kentucky Senator and medical doctor claims an undergraduate degree he doesn’t have.

The House voted to repeal the PPACA for the 56th time, but it’s clear that this vote will end up being a pointless as all the others.

Scott Walker surged to the top of a new poll of Iowa Republicans, but Iowa is not a very good predictor of success in the race for the GOP nomination.

The Tea Party may be the most vocal wing of the GOP but most Republicans seems to favor candidates that aren’t quite so right wing.

The two decade long argument over same-sex marriage appears headed for its final legal showdown.

Even with a House and Senate majority, the GOP is unlikely to get what it wants in its current immigration battle with the President.

Just one day into the new Congress, the first confrontation is already set.

Several Tea Party backed Members of Congress claim to be challenging John Boehner in tomorrow’s vote for Speaker. They are, of course, delusional.

Shortly after the new year, we could know whether or not the Supreme Court will issue a definitive ruling on same-sex marriage by the end of June.

Two potential candidates for the Republican nomination in 2016 traded barbs this week over the President’s new policy toward Cuba.

Rand Paul is one of the few Republicans who seems to be evaluating the new policy toward Cuba through something other than an outdated Cold War perspective.

As expected, the Senate passed the so-called “Cromnibus,” but not before a self-aggrandizing maneuver by Ted Cruz ended up being exploited by Democrats to pass outstanding nominations.

Some on the left are suggesting Democrats should write off the South for the foreseeable future, but that would be as foolish as Republicans assuming that their dominance in the region will last as long as Democratic dominance did in the century after the Civil War.

Even leaving aside the fact that it is far too early to be making such assessments, the idea that Rand Paul is the front runner for the Republican nomination in 2016 fails the logic test.

The GOP donor class would like the 2016 race to be short and sweet, but that’s unlikely to happen.

While conservatives have been generally as appalled as others with the news out of Staten Island, some of them are looking in the wrong place for blame.

The numbers don’t lie, Mitt Romney remains popular among Republican voters.

When push comes to shove, top Republicans may still try to make Mitt Romney happen.

An adviser close to Hillary Clinton is talking about expanding the Electoral College map in 2016, but even without such an expansion the GOP faces an uphill battle.

The process that seems likely to lead to a Supreme Court ruling on same-sex marriage has begun.