Outside the Beltway

President Trump’s nominee to be the next Director of National Intelligence is quite simply not qualified for the position he has been nominated to.

Everything you always wanted in a hearing. And less.

Robert Mueller didn’t provide a smoking gun yesterday, but the President and his supporters are wrong to claim that the hearing vindicated the President.

Is it possible, or even appropriate, to express pride in a country that is being led by a President who stands against everything this country stands for?

The Supreme Court ruled that a World War One memorial that had been on public grounds for 70 years can stay where it is.

Thirty years ago, when the veterans of D-Day were still relatively young and still largely with us, President Reagan delivered one of the finest speeches of his Presidency.

White House aides asked the Navy to keep the USS John McCain “out of sight” while the President visited a Navy base in Japan earlier this week.

President Trump is reportedly planning to pardon several American servicemen convicted of war crimes, an action that would be an insult to everyone who has ever worn an American uniform.

All three children of the next head of the Army are following in his footsteps.

The Wall Street Journal tries, and fails, to defend President Trump’s indefensible veto of the Congressional resolution regarding the war on Yemen.

The legendary figure was in charge of strategic forecasting at the Pentagon for decades.

It turns out, The Duke wasn’t all that woke.

A student in Florida has been charged with creating a disturbance after declining to recite the Pledge Of Allegiance in class.

There is a bit of a disjuncture between the terminology and the reality (but that does not excuse Trump’s current actions).

Walter Jones, a former supporter of the Iraq War who became one of the most prominent anti-war voices in Congress, has passed away at the age of 76. He will be missed.

In a rare display of assertiveness in the foreign policy arena, the House voted yesterday to bar U.S. assistance in Saudi Arabia’s genocidal war on Yemen.

The longest-serving member of Congress in American history has passed away at the age of 92.

Former Senator and Denocratic Presidential candidate Jim Webb is reportedly being considered for Defense Secretary.

The Pentagon is being ordered to draw up plans to withdraw roughly one-half of the American forces remaining in Afghanistan. It’s about time.

American troops have been in Afghanistan for seventeen years now, it’s time to bring them all home.

An effort by the Federal Government to prosecute Wikileaks founder Julian Assange raises serious First Amendment issues.

It would be a rather quixotic effort, but Jeff Flake isn’t ruling out challenging the President for the Republican nomination in 2020.

The GOP is likely to lose control of the House of Representatives tomorrow, but could this actually help Trump?

For the second time this year, a Federal Court has struck down a state law designed to punish businesses that engage in a boycott aimed at Israel.

The State of Texas is arguing in Court that a school district can force a student to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. This is a blatant violation of the First Amendment.

Washington said farewell to John McCain today in a service that both remembered his spirit and his heroism, and stands as a sharp rebuke to what politics has been reduced to in America today.

President Trump reportedly vetoed a plan to issue a statement lauding Senator John McCain after he died on Saturday.

Senator John McCain has died at the age of 81,

A Federal Judge in Washington State has, at least temporarily, blocked the release of files that would allow anyone to make a 3-D printed gun. The First Amendment seems to clearly indicate that this ruling is wrong.

Even if all he gets out of the Helsinki Summit is a handshake and a photograph, Vladimir Putin has already won.

The situation isn’t as awful as portrayed by the AP—but it’s still pretty bad.

What was once a rare symbol of national mourning has become so commonplace as to be meaningless.

Not surprisingly, Canadians aren’t too thrilled with Donald Trump these days.

One outcome of the SIngapore Summit includes a purported agreement to work on repatriating American remains from the Korean War. This is a good thing, but the President couldn’t resist adding obvious embellishment.

Thanks to Donald Trump, the happiest man in the world right now is Vladimir Putin.

Donald Trump hinted that he’s considering a pardon for Muhammad Ali, but Ali doesn’t need a pardon.

Echoing the Obama Administration, the Trump Administration is arguing that it did not need Congressional authorization to attack Syria earlier this year.

61 percent of Americans have a favorable impression of a man who left office a failed president.

When it comes to the Trump White House, the fish rots from the head down.

John McCain continues to bravely battle an aggressive form of brain cancer, but he’s already made clear that he doesn’t want the 45th President of the United States at his funeral.

Without Congressional authorization, any attack on Syria would be illegal, but don’t expect Congress to do anything about it.

By all accounts, Gina Haspel is exceedingly well qualified to be the next C.I.A. Director, but she has a troubling past that the Senate will need to at least force her to answer questions about.

Absent changes in policy, the nation’s most hallowed military cemetery will run out of space in two decades.

South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham says war against North Korea would be worth it. Ignoring the fact that it would result in casualties unlike anything America has seen since the Vietnam War.

Continuing a long-standard tradition, the Trump Administration claims it doesn’t need to get legal authorization to keep American troops in Syria.

A Federal Judge In Kansas has blocked enforcement of a state law barring anyone who does business with the state from engaging in a boycott of Israel.

With the Administration set to commit the United States to a forever war in Syria, it’s time for Congress to act.

Jim Nabors, who became famous as Gomer Pyle on The Andy Griffith Show and Gomer Pyle USMC, has died at the age of  87.

On North Korea, there are two options, deterrence and war. And only one of those options makes sense.