Outside the Beltway

Less than twenty-four hours before voting starts, Donald Trump looks to do very well on what is arguably the most important day of the campaign.

Trump is doing the opposite of trying to calm things down.

Donald Trump has spent nine months encouraging his supporters to beat up protesters and calling the press “scum.” Words have consequences.

The violence that Donald Trump encourages among supporters is manifesting itself in real life.

Given the stakes headed into the latest version of ‘Super Tuesday,’ last night’s Republican debate was surprisingly subdued.

The President could nominate someone to fill the vacancy created by Antonin Scalia’s death as soon a next week, but Republicans in the Senate remain firmly committed to their decision to deny the as yet unnamed nominee any consideration.

Less than a week before what may be the most important week of the campaign, Donald Trump is in very good shape. Marco Rubio and John Kasich? Not so much.

Hilary Clinton crushed Bernie Sanders in Mississippi, but was surprised by Bernie Sanders in Michigan. Nonetheless she still remains in control of the race.

Michael Bloomberg announced today that he’s not running for President, but he came awfully close to getting into the race.

Bernie Sanders was more aggressive in last night’s debate than he has been in the past, but it’s likely too little, too late.

Bernie Sanders won two of the three Democratic contests last night, but he fell further behind in the delegate count any way and isn’t very far from being mathematically eliminated.

As expected, Hillary Clinton won big last night while Bernie Sanders largely floundered, thus going further toward making Clinton’s victory inevitable.

A new poll shows Donald Trump with historically low support for a Republican from Latino voters. That’s a recipe for electoral disaster.

Conservatives are sending a message to Senate Republicans about the vacancy on the Supreme Court, and it may require them to initiate a suicidal game plan.

Donald Trump hasn’t hit the point of inevitability yet, but time is running short if Republicans are going to stop him.

The unity of the Republican Senate on the idea of no hearings or votes, if it ever really existed, appears to be cracking.

Republicans are putting much on the line in their refusal to consider any Supreme Court nomination from President Obama.

Major carriers are reporting massive losses and demanding major rate hikes to cover the costs imposed by PPACA.

If Donald Trump is going to win in early states like Iowa or New Hampshire, he needs a ground game that will get voters to the polls. It doesn’t seem like he has much of one right now.

The man who killed three and wounded several others at a Colorado Planned Parenthood seemingly admitted guilt and motive in a courtroom outburst, but questions about his mental capacity remain.

Donald Trump’s plan to bar all Muslim immigration to the United States is being widely condemned by his fellow Republicans and others, but the proposal probably won’t hurt him politically in a Republican Party that is deeply bigoted against Muslims in general.

We still don’t know very much about Robert Dear, the man who shot and killed three people at the site of a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado, but that hasn’t stopped the usual suspects from politicizing the case.

A gunman is holed up in a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs after shooting multiple people, but it’s unclear what if any motive may be involved in the shooting.

Syrian refugees have quickly become political footballs in the United States in the wake of the Paris attacks, and it’s become an exceedingly shameful display of pandering and fearmongering by a group of largely Republican politicians.

Republicans haven’t really moved beyond the legacy of George W. Bush’s failed Administration as much as they’d like to think, but it doesn’t seem to be hurting them very much.

My favorite sports team employs a thug.

Marco Rubio is taking heat for missing a lot of Senate votes since he started running for President, but he’s not really any worse than other legislators who have run for President.

Yesterday, Paul Ryan spoke out against the procedure under which the new budget deal was negotiated. Today, he announced that he’ll vote for it anyway.

A new poll shows that the Tea Party movement is more unpopular than it has ever been before, even among Republicans and conservatives.

Another political earthquake in Washington as Kevin McCarthy drops out of the race for Speaker, and the House GOP doesn’t seem to know which way to go.

With just a day to go before House Republicans pick their candidate for Speaker, conservatives don’t seem to be able to unify behind a candidate.

Big news out of Washington, D.C.

To listen to many of the Republican candidates for President, it would appear that the lights have been turned out on Ronald Reagan’s shining city on a hill.

Speaker John Boehner seems likely to see another leadership threat from fellow Republicans this fall.

A teenager in North Carolina is facing serious criminal charges in another absurd overreaction to teenager “sexting.”

A trial court Judge in Oregon is the latest public official to refuse to do his job.

The Supreme Court has denied a Kentucky Clerk’s request to stay a ruling requiring her to comply with the law and issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

States who try to use loyalty oaths to keep Donald Trump off the ballot will be running afoul of the Constitution.

Republican officials in three states are looking at ways to keep Donald Trump off the primary ballot unless he pledges to support the eventual GOP nominee.

Thanks in part to a slow summer news cycle, the speculation about Vice-President Biden entering the race for President seems to be reaching a fever pitch.

A Clerk in Kentucky appears to be headed for a showdown with a Federal District Court Judge that she is destined to lose.

A Federal Appeals Court has dealt a setback to Texas in the battle over its Voter ID Law.

A little known Congressman from North Carolina has filed a motion to “remove” John Boehner from the Speakership.

After 30 years in prison, Jonathan Pollard will be released later this year.

Low costs and regulatory barriers are attracting people to red states–thus turning them purple and blue.

The GOP’s Trump-induced headache isn’t going away any time soon.

A County Clerk in Kentucky is being sued because she thinks she can refuse to do her job and still keep that job.

The Attorney General of Texas is responding to the Supreme Court’s marriage ruling by telling Clerk’s who issue marriage license that they are free to ignore the law.

Wherein I take the view that as our understanding of language changes, so too does our application of the Constiution.