Outside the Beltway

People are looking to New Jersey as the next same-sex marriage battleground, but it’s not going to be an easy fight.

The Senate passed an immigration reform bill today, but it’s not going to go anywhere.

A thirteen hour filibuster by Wendy Davis ran out the clock on a special session of the Texas legislature, apparently defeating an abortion bill that passed 19-10 after time expired.

A new round of documents from the IRS, that aren’t really new, doesn’t really change the basic narrative on the IRS “targeting” story.

One Congressman apparently thinks that asserting your Constitutional rights should be grounds for losing a government job.

A new theory circulating on the right asserts that IRS targeting of Tea Party groups had an impact on the 2012 elections by diminish the Tea Party’s effectiveness. It’s mostly nonsense.

Focusing on Edward Snowden is largely a waste of time.

It looks for all the world as if the House GOP Caucus isn’t really under the control of the leadership.

Yes, it ended slavery. But at a huge cost.

A new Congressional Budget Office report finds real economic benefits from immigration reform.

Does it matter if political leaders like each other on some personal level? Sometimes it does.

An absolutely ridiculous criminal case out of West Virginia.

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.

Scott Walker could be the GOP’s surprise candidate in 2016.

Today’s decision by the Supreme Court was, on the surface, a victory for Federal Supremacy, but the issue itself is far from resolved.

A song written when Grover Cleveland was President is still protected by Copyright Law. That makes no sense at all.

The GOP seems to be making the same mistakes that led to defeat in 2012.

The Administration has accepted reality in its fight against a ruling that made the “morning after” pill available regardless of age.

Scientists have known for years that large quantities of supplemental vitamins can be quite harmful. Yet, the FDA is prohibited by law from telling the public.

Jay Stanley and Ben Wizner, privacy experts at the ACLU, argue that metadata is more sensitive than we think.

As of today, John Dingell has been a Member of Congress for 20,997 days, a new record. That’s not something to celebrate.

The government has your cell phone and credit card records. What can they do with that information?

Marco Rubio is threatening to withdraw support for the immigration plan he helped draft, but I would suggest not reading too much into that threat.

Finland gives all parents of newborns a cardboard box for their babies to sleep in. No, they’re not homeless.

Has the Arab Spring come to Turkey?

If there’s one thing that our generals and admirals agree on it’s that generals and admirals should retain their power.

Eric Holder’s testimony before Congress is leading to accusations of perjury, but the argument that he did so seem pretty weak.

Apparently, our biggest problem in America is now the name of an NFL franchise.

Filling normal vacancies on the bench is not “packing the court.”

Former Senator Bob Dole joins the list of those not too happy with the current state of the Republican Party.

The Virginia GOP’s nominee for Lt. Governor could pose a problem for the party.

President Obama delivered another powerful speech on race.

Almost no one can confidently explain, let alone define, the specifics of the 501(c)4 designation.

President Obama faces some perilous times ahead now that his Administration is under fire.

Justice Ginsburg made some interesting comments about Roe v. Wade recently. Could they be a signal about where the Court is headed on gay marriage?

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