Outside the Beltway

Yesterday marked fifteen years since I launched Outside the Beltway on the old Blogspot service. 

A Federal Court in North Carolina has issued a stinging ruling against the partisan gerrymandering undertaken by the Republican legislature in that state.

After nearly twenty years, the Republican domination of the Virginia House of Delegates came to an end thanks to a single vote.

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a second case dealing with political Gerrymandering.

A Fox News host has debunked the Uranium One conspiracy theory being pushed by his own network.

Roy Moore’s most die-hard defenders are living in a world of their own, and it’s unlikely they’ll change their minds.

A complicated concurrence to Steven Taylor’s recent postings.

The ‘No Labels’ movement is back, and it’s as irrelevant to contemporary politics as ever.

Democrats and “Never Trump”ers shouldn’t count their chickens before they’re hatched.

The revelations about Donald Trump Jr.’s June 2016 meeting with someone represented as being a Russian government official just keep getting worse.

President Trump’s decision to share highly classified information with the Russians is yet another demonstration of his dangerous hubris and incompetence.

Was Jim Comey fired in an effort to impede the Russia investigation? Trump’s own words are making it sound more and more likely.

After 100 days in office, President Trump has very little to show for his work except to show that there’s no reason to trust his judgment going forward.

Roy Moore, who is currently on suspension, has resigned as chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court in order to challenge Luther Strange for his seat in the US Senate.

The background of the United incident, from an aviation law and policy perspective.

The Senate Judiciary Committee voted to advance the nomination of Judge Neil Gorsuch even as it became inevitable that Republicans would be forced to invoke the ‘nuclear option’ to confirm him to the Supreme Court.

As expected, Donald Trump yesterday signed Executive Orders targeting Muslims and refugees.

While hardly the most compelling argument against an archaic institution, yesterday’s silliness was noteworthy.

Beginning late this morning, the Electors in each of the states will meet to carry out their Constitutional function. Despite the drama accompanying this year’s election, there’s likely to be far less drama than some people seem to be hoping for.

Congressional term limits are a good idea, but they are only a partial solution at best and may not be the best solution to the problems facing our political system.

In which I use a lot of words to say hello.

Trying to make sense of that which makes no sense.

A look at the Electoral College shows that It is far more likely that Hillary Clinton will win the election than that Donald Trump will.

Her numbers are steady; he’s reclaiming Republican voters.

Two weeks before Election Day, everything seems to be going Hillary Clinton’s way.

Donald Trump is facing potential trouble in a state that has gone for a Democrat only twice since the end of World War II.

Trump was alternately somnambulant, petulant, stalking, incoherent, and dangerous.

Donald Trump is doing worse with white voters than Mitt Romney did in 2012.

Trump had a much lower bar than Clinton going in. Neither cleared it.

Yes, Colin Powell used private email too. No, it’s not the same thing. No, it’s not because he was a Republican.

Answering a question that gets a lot.

Clinton is a virtual lock for the Democratic nomination. Rubio is the most plausible Republican winner in a messy field.

Six months ago, there were seventeen candidates for the 2016 Republican nomination. Now, the race is effectively down to three candidates.

The Supreme Court heard oral argument today in a case that could have big implications for redistricting, and the make-up of state legislatures and the House of Representatives.

The initial responses of the Republican candidates for President to the attacks in Paris are about what you’d expect, but it’s far too early to tell what impact the events of the weekend will have on the race for President here in the United States.

We are legally, morally, and practically obligated to respond. Let’s not do so stupidly.

Paul Ryan’s admission that immigration reform will not happen as long as Barack Obama is President simply reflects the reality of immigration politics in Congress.

Two new polls show that political efforts to enact more stringent gun control at the national level are not likely to succeed.

Scott Walker and Chris Christie apparently think that the key to turning around their dying campaigns is to pander to the people supporting Donald Trump’s anti-immigration platform.

Donald Trump’s support in the polls appears to become coming largely from people who don’t typically vote in primary elections.

Even if Donald Trump isn’t the Republican nominee in 2016, he could still end up causing real harm to the party’s chances of winning the White House and holding on to the Senate.

Gravity announced a minimum annual salary of $70,000. Almost everyone is unhappy.

The Supreme Court’s decision on marriage equality seems to have revived an idea that has been mentioned before, but as it has always been, the idea of “getting government out of marriage” is little more than a simplistic slogan.

Debating the proper role of the judiciary.

A Congressman wants to force Supreme Court Justices to get their health care through the ObamaCare exchange.

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.

New polling on President Obama’s opening to Cuba is likely to surprise some, and disappoint others.

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

In the end, there is no difference between Roy Moore resisting a Federal Court Order related to same-sex marriage and George Wallace’s efforts to block desegregation.