Outside the Beltway

The Senate left for vacation without a viable path forward on health care reform, and the road ahead seems treacherous and hard to navigate.

Senate Republicans released their proposed health care plan this morning, but it could already be doomed.

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.

Faced with the fact that it has little to show for its first 100 days in office, the Trump Administration is pressuring Congress to come up with a new health care reform bill before the end of next week.

Stop romanticizing the filibuster (and don’t appeal to the intent of the Founders).

As expected, Senate Republicans invoked the so-called ‘nuclear option’ to move the nomination of Judge Neil Gorsuch forward to a final vote on Friday.

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.

Next week’s big news is likely to be the Senate’s vote to confirm Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, which could mean invocation of the so-called ‘nuclear option’ by Senate Republicans.

Let the games begin.

Senate Democrats are divided on how to approach the nomination of Judge Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, making it likely that he’ll be confirmed.

There were fireworks on the floor of the Senate last night, but it was really just politics as usual.

The new leader of the Senate’s Democrats says he regrets supporting the filibuster reforms his party passed in 2013.

Senior Republican Senators are throwing cold water on the idea of eliminating the filibuster.

Comments from one Republican Senator are raising the possibility we could see hearings and a vote on Merrick Garland during the post-election lame duck session of Congress.

GOP control of Indiana’s Senate seat appears to be in jeopardy, and that will have serious implications for the battle to control the Senate.

With Donald Trump floundering, there are a whole lot of nervous Republican Senators up for re-election.

With Donald Trump now confirmed as the GOP nominee, some conservatives are suggesting that the Senate GOP should just give in on the nomination of Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court.

It may be the talk of Washington, but the political fight over Justice Scalia’s vacant Supreme Court seat does not seem to be something voters care very much about.

Conservatives are doing all they can to make sure Merrick Garland does not get either a hearing or a vote in the Senate, and it’s working.

Another Republican Senator has broken ranks and called for hearings on the nomination of Merrick Garland, as another poll shows most Americans support hearings as well.

It increasingly appears that the GOP is on the losing side of the argument over whether to hold hearings and a vote on the nomination of Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court.

A crack in the wall.

President Obama has selected his nominee to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court, now the question is whether the Senate will act.

The coming political battle over President Obama’s effort to fill the vacancy created by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia will likely be unlike anything we’ve seen before.

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.

Another poll shows that most Americans would prefer that the vacancy on the Supreme Court be filled by President Obama than that it be left open for the next President to fill, but other factors make it unlikely the Senate will act.

Is President Obama planning a Checkmate move in the SCOTUS nomination fight?

Notwithstanding polling that indicates the American public disagrees with them, Senate Republicans emerged from a meeting today largely united on the idea of not giving any Supreme Court nominee named by President a hearing, or even the courtesy of a meeting.

The American people do not seem to support the Republican position on whether President Obama’s expected Supreme Court nominee should get proper consideration by the Senate.

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.

In 1992, Joe Biden said that no action should be taken on any potential Supreme Court nominations until after that year’s Presidential election. Sound familiar?

Two new polls show that Americans are basically split equally on the question of who should appoint the Justice that will replace Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court.

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

A crack in the Republican wall?

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

The politicization of Supreme Court appointments didn’t start with Republicans last night.

It didn’t take long for the political battle over the seat held by the late Justice Antonin Scalia to become another part of the 2016 political battle.

A leaked memo from a top Republican adviser tries to tell vulnerable Senate candidates how to deal with the possibility that they’ll be stuck with Trump on the top of the ticket.

If the Administration gets its way, efforts to block the Iran nuclear deal may come to a quick end in the Senate.

Rand Paul held the Senate floor for nearly twelve hours yesterday to talk about the PATRIOT Act, but it’s unclear if he accomplished anything.

Now that they control all of Congress, some Republicans are suddenly deciding that the filibuster should be repealed.

A theme that just won’t go away.

For some reason, Republicans want to change filibuster rules even though it’s unclear that they’ll still hold the Senate after 2016.

West Virginia’s Joe Manchin is reportedly mulling leaving the Senate to run once again for a job where he’d have the ability to actually accomplish something.

As expected, the Senate passed the so-called “Cromnibus,” but not before a self-aggrandizing maneuver by Ted Cruz ended up being exploited by Democrats to pass outstanding nominations.

The GOP Senate Caucus seems to be split on whether or not to reinstate the filibuster for Presidential and Judicial appointments.

A crushing but expected defeat for a veteran Democrat.