Outside the Beltway

The situation we currently find oursevles in is very much driven by structural issues.

President Obama had some potentially market-moving news for Wall Street.

Republicans don’t seem willing to let go of the Obamacare issue just yet. But, how long will that actually last?

With key conservatives pushing for sanity, the grown-ups have a chance to take back the GOP.

Ted Cruz is going after the Speaker of the House.

Nazi comparisons are only helpful when discussing actual Nazis.

If recent history is any guide, there won’t really be a government shutdown next week. But, the zealotry of the “defund Obamacare” caucus could change everything.

Ted Cruz becomes a little more honest about his plan to “defund” Obamacare.

The House is going to make it more likely that we see a government shutdown at the end of the month.

The GOP’s plan to defund reality becomes even more disconnected from reality.

The House GOP Leadership didn’t endear itself to the Tea Party today.

Opposing interventionism and unnecessary and unwise military engagements is not isolationism.

The political polarization we saw during the Bush Presidency has continued throughout the Obama Presidency.

Given that the vote count seems to be heading that way, this is a question worth examination.

Not surprisingly, Congressional leaders on both sides of the aisle are lining up behind the President in the debate over Syria.

There seems to be a divide developing between Republican leadership and the Tea Party over the idea of shutting the government down over Obamacare.

Congress isn’t spending much time in Washington these days but that’s only one of the reasons it isn’t accomplishing very much.

Ted Cruz is either being incredibly cynical as he deludes his fellow Republicans, or he’s living in a fantasy world.

Conservatives are doing what the criticized JournoList for doing—even though JournoList didn’t.

Lindsey Graham is playing cynical political games with a dangerous part of the world.

Republicans aren’t happy with their leadership. The reason why is also the reason why Republicans are in trouble politically.

A new poll shows public approval for the Supreme Court nearing a all-time low.

Some interesting taking of sides is already taking place in the GOP Senate race in Wyoming.

Forget about the budget deficit and spending. The Tea Party apparently now considers stopping immigration reform to be its most important task.

An empty threat.

Lois Lerner is likely headed back to Congress over the largely phony charge that she waived her Fifth Amendment rights.

Looking for a quick overview of recent developments in the IRS Tea Party Scandal? Here are two links to help.

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.

Marco Rubio has suffered a reversal of fortune among Republicans thanks to his role in the immigration reform debate.

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.

Why did House Republicans vote overwhelmingly for a bill that their own theories would find to be unconstitutional?

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

President Obama’s poll numbers seem to be suffering under the weight of nearly two months of scandals and/ media attention.

Today is the deadline for Darryl Issa to respond to a request from Elijah Cummings to defend a decision not to release IRS interview transcripts. What happens if Issa doesn’t respond?

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

Without full transcripts, the excerpts released by the House Oversight Committee are worthless.

There is only one serious candidate in the race for Frank Lautenberg’s old Senate seat, and he’s got pretty much no chance of winning the election.

The TIGTA audit reveals the BOLO “Tea Party” list was right 81% of the time. But does that change anything?

Tax analyst Martin A. Sullivan finds that 1/3rd of “potentially political applications” approved by the IRS were from non-conservative groups.