Outside the Beltway

Two words spoken by a Romney aide have led to a ridiculous firestorm on the right, while the rest of their comments are being ignored.

CFR’s Laurie Garrett has a piece in The Atlantic headlined “Good Job, CIA: Your Pakistan Vaccine Plot Helped Bring Polio Back From the Brink of Eradication.”

The Romney campaign is trying to shift the narrative.

Democratic rhetoric since the Supreme Court decision on ObamaCare raises the question of whether they made a political mistake.

It’s never a good thing when an Administration is investigating itself.

In his ruling on the ObamaCare cases, Chief Justices Roberts reached back to a judicial philosophy with roots in men like Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. and Felix Frankfurter.

Congress has found Eric Holder to be in contempt. I am not entirely sure what that accomplishes.

Chief Justice Roberts sided with a majority in upholding the individual mandate and, indeed, all but some trivial portions of the Affordable Care Act.

Thanks to a surprising decision by Chief Justice Roberts, the Affordable Care Act has survived the Constitutional challenges against it.

Regardless of how the Court rules on the Affordable Care Act, the upcoming election has the potential to reshape the Court for decades to come.

A Fortune Magazine investigation puts a new spin on Operation Fast And Furious, but questions still remain.

Justice Scaiia’s dissent in Arizona v. United States included many odd forays into areas that had nothing to do with the case before him.

There’s no evidence that Fast & Furious, whatever it was, was a conspiracy to lobby for tighter gun control laws.

America’s Drug War has caused more problems for Mexico than Fast & Furious ever will.

From one Nobel Peace Prize winner to another.

The Supreme Court left the most important part of SB1070 intact, but it faces serious challenges in the future.

The Oompa Loompah Edition OTB Caption Contest^TM is now over.

Issa, Holder, and a little Madison.

The conspiracy theories regarding Fast And Furious are simply not believable, but that doesn’t mean the matter shouldn’t be investigated.

Fast and furious, or a lot of sound and fury signifying not too much?

Is there any legal merit to the Administration’s invocation of Executive Privilege?

Rand Paul calls Mitt Romney out over his comments about Presidential War Powers.

President Obama’s immigration policy shift is legal, it’s good policy, but bypassing Congress won’t solve our immigration problems.

Republican reaction to the President’s immigration policy announcement has been relatively muted, and it’s likely to stay that way.

Frustrated by its inability to get laws passed through Congress, the Obama administration has decided to stop following laws already passed by Congress.

If the Department of Justice does not fully comply with Congressional subpoenas, then there seems to be no alternative other than holding the Attorney General in contempt.

Are infrastructure projects the key to turning around the economy? Not really.

There is a disturbing trend in Western nations toward enforcement of laws against “insulting” religions.

The United States may have slowed down Iran’s nuclear program without firing a shot–not counting the one at our own foot.

You have Martin Luther King’s statue in your office, but you are sending these unmanned drones out, and bombs are dropping on innocent people.

The New York Times finds some infighting among old Republican foreign policy hands.

The Catholic Church has fired a legal shot across the bow of the Affordable Care Act.

Here’s why nobody in Washington will allow the Bush Tax Cuts to expire.

In office less than a day, Francois Hollande has already been forced to admit he can’t withdraw French forces from Afghanistan by the end of the year.

A tough new Obama campaign ad highlights people who lost their jobs after a Bain Capital takeover–at a time Mitt Romney was not at Bain Capital.

Is there a Romney Doctrine?

My first piece for the Christian Science Monitor, co-authored with my Atlantic Council collegue Barry Pavel, has been posted.