Outside the Beltway

The map shows the flaws of the Electoral College

The Democratic National Committee is moving to block efforts by the state parties in Iowa and Nevada to open up the caucus process to more participants, citing security issues.

Alabama Governor Kay Ivey is the latest politician to apologize for donning blackface while she was in college.

As he has in the past, President Trump has backed away from support for any gun control measures in the wake of the mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton.

The 76-year-old Democratic frontrunner’s penchant for gaffes is raising questions about his fitness to govern.

A Federal Court has ruled once again in favor of a transgender student in Virginia who was prevented from using the bathroom conforming to their gender identity.

Jeffrey Epstein’s death by suicide has led to many legitimate questions that should be investigated. It has also led to the rise of a number of baseless conspiracy theories.

Donald Trump is a complete package, you can’t support part of it without at least implicitly endorsing all of it.

Just over a week after Dan Coats announced he was stepping own as Director of National Intelligence, there are more shakeups at the top of the U.S. intelligence community.

In a unanimous decision, a three-judge panel from the Second Circuit has reinstated Sarah Palin’s defamation lawsuit against The New York Times.

More than half of the House Democratic Caucus has endorsed impeachment, but that’s unlikely to cause Nancy Pelosi to move off her current position.

Another day, another mass shooting and, as is becoming all too common in this country, this one appears to have been racially motivated.

Dan Coats is stepping down as Director of National Intelligence, and President Trump wants to replace him with an inexperienced, obsequious toady.

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.

A great public intellectual, pioneering blogger, and all-around good man is gone.

A new poll finds that a majority of Americans oppose statehood for the District of Columbia.

An Army appellate court has rejected an appeal filed by Bowe Bergdahl that argued that the President’s attacks on him while a candidate unfairly influenced his court martial.

President Trump has named his pick for Labor Secretary.

What happened to “building a lasting relationship within the African American community”?

Republican Bill Lee is coming under fire for continuing an annual tradition.

Susan Collins hasn’t officially announced her intentions for 2020 just yet, but she looks like she’s running for re-election. If she does, she appears to be facing some political headwinds.

The Congressional Budget Office assesses several reform proposals.

Kris Kobach, former Kansas Secretary of State and former head of President Trump’s “Voter Fraud” Commission, is running for Senator in Kansas.

Well, of course they are.

Virginia has finally repealed a dumb and unconstitutional restriction on how bars could advertise Happy Hours.

Another poll is out showing that Americans overwhelmingly oppose the President’s decision to ban transgender troops from serving in the military.

Various federal and state agencies are enforcing existing laws while Congress scrambles to update them.

The Supreme Court has struck down a provision of the Lanham Act barring approval of “immoral” or “scandalous” trademarks as unconstitutional.

The Alaska Supreme Court has ruled that the state’s sex offender registry violates due process protections in the state and Federal Constitutions.

Congress is considering a bill that would establish a commission to examine the issue of reparations for slavery.;

The Supreme Court rejected an effort by the Virginia House of Delegates to overturn a Federal Court ruling that the state’s district lines constituted gerrymandering by race. But they didn’t rule on the merits of the appeal.

A new poll finds increasing support for transgender rights, even among Republicans.

Four years ago, Donald Trump began his campaign for President. What has followed has been as bad as could have been predicted that day.

The participants for the two-night opening debate of the 2020 campaign season have been announced, and the candidates who were excluded aren’t happy.

Texas has become the latest state to eliminate red-light cameras amid increasing evidence that they are largely counterproductive.

Beginning tomorrow in a British courtroom, the United States will begin the process of having Julian Assange extradited to the United States to face espionage and other charges.

At least some conservatives appear to finally be recognizing that their movement has been taken over by grifters and frauds. The only question is, what took them so long?

John Kasich hasn’t shut the door completely, but recent comments seem to make it clear he’s not likely to take on the President for the Republican nomination.

A new poll shows that a majority of Americans support equal rights for transgender Americans, with only Republicans disagreeing with that position.

Starting tomorrow, we should be getting some headline-grabbing opinions from the Supreme Court.

A dozen people died late yesterday in a workplace shooting at the Virginia Beach Municipal Center.

The Supreme Court let a ruling against students opposed to a school district policy allowing transgender students to use the bathroom corresponding to their gender identity stand.

A Virginia woman left unusual instructions for the Executor of her will, and it’s become something of a controversy.

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has been indicted on seventeen counts under the Espionage Act arising out of his role in the Chelsea Manning affair.

John Walker Lindh, the so-called “American Taliban,” has been released from prison but the war in which he was captured goes merrily along.

An independent review of the racist photo on Virginia Governor Ralph Northam’s 1984 medical school yearbook was unsurprisingly inconclusive.

As the Administration continues to stonewall legitimate requests from Congress for documents and witnesses, pressure is growing on Speaker Pelosi to authorize the opening of an impeachment inquiry.

I’m not sure his solution is correct or even legal. But the problem is very real.

Not surprisingly, Chelsea Manning is headed back to jail for her refusal to answer questions before a Federal Grand Jury investigating Julian Assange and Wikileaks.

Northern Virginia is slowly undoing an anachronism.