Outside the Beltway

To the surprise of few, Bill Simmons’ site didn’t long survive his departure.

Marco Rubio has won the support of a top Republican donor and bundler, giving a much needed boost to his campaign.

Because that’s what White Houseses do.

Another day, another military escalation in the Middle East.

In the wake of Wednesday’s debate, the Republican National Committee has suspended its partnership in a planned February debate with NBC News and Spanish language network Telemundo.

Marco Rubio’s performance in this week’s debate is once again leading to speculation about whether is about to have a breakout moment.

Everyone is sick of the current approach. The candidates are looking for a new one.

Several Republican candidates for President want to “fix” the debates, but they wouldn’t like the one thing that would definitely fix them.

Thanks mostly to well-founded demographic concerns, China is ending the ‘One Child’ policy, but it is probably too late for them to avoid the consequences of the forty year program.

As expected, the Senate easily passed the two-year budget deal early this morning.

Gross Domestic Product grew at a sluggish 1.5% in the just-concluded Third Quarter, calling the Federal Reserve’s apparent plan to raise interest rates at some point even further into question.

While it did draw 14 million viewers, last night’s CNBC debate had the smallest audience of any Presidential debate so far. That was probably a good thing for CNBC considering how bad the debate was.

With only a handful of opposition, Paul Ryan was easily elected the 62nd Speaker of the House.

The worst-moderated debate thus far may have reordered the field.

Rand Paul is promising to filibuster the budget deal when it gets to the Senate, but it’s extremely unlikely he’ll be able to do anything but delay the inevitable.

Marco Rubio is taking heat for missing a lot of Senate votes since he started running for President, but he’s not really any worse than other legislators who have run for President.

Yesterday, Paul Ryan spoke out against the procedure under which the new budget deal was negotiated. Today, he announced that he’ll vote for it anyway.

The House Committee investigating the IRS targeting scandal will consider impeaching the I.R.S. Commissioner over issues that are, at beast, only tangentially related to the scandal itself.

Compromise is simply necessary for the country to function.

President Obama is reportedly considering a plan that would put American forces much closer to the ground war in the war against ISIS.

Paul Ryan is blasting the process that led to the new budget deal between the GOP and the White House, but one suspects he’s secretly quite pleased with the fact that it makes his job-to-be a lot easier.

One unqualified outsider with a history of saying outrageous things replaces another unqualified outsider with a history of saying outrageous things, at least according to yet another new poll.

Congress and the White House have reached a tentative deal on the budget and debt ceiling that promises to make Paul Ryan’s initial months as Speaker a lot easier.

Republicans seem to be thinking that Hillary Clinton will be an easier General Election candidate than the evidence suggests she is likely to be.

Another batch of polls confirms that Donald Trump has fallen from the top in the Hawkeye State.

A new poll shows that the Tea Party movement is more unpopular than it has ever been before, even among Republicans and conservatives.

Time the Monday OTB Caption Contest^TM

The Oh, The Huma Inanity! Edition OTB Caption Contest^TM is now over.

Several recent nominees were flailing at this point in those cycles.

Pure fantasy.

The Department of Justice has informed Congress that its investigation has found no basis for criminal charges arising out of the targeting of conservative organizations by IRS officials evaluating applications for tax-exempt status.

The nurse who was detained by New Jersey officials in a quarantine despite not displaying any symptoms of Ebola is suing Chris Christie and others for civil liberties violations.

Once the Republican frontrunner, Jeb Bush is now floundering and dealing with donors worried that they may be backing the wrong horse.

So close, and yet so very, very, far.

Two new Iowa polls show Ben Carson passing Donald Trump in the Hawkeye State, but that’s not necessarily good news for Republicans.

With the voting now seemingly a mere formality, the question becomes what kind of Speaker of the House Paul Ryan will become.

After an eleven hour day on Capitol Hill, it was Hillary Clinton 1 House Benghazi Committee 0.

As the House Select Benghazi Committee continues to question Hillary Clinton, a new poll finds that the vast majority of Americans view its work as political rather than part of an objective investigation.

Instead of eliminating the Department of Education, Ben Carson wants to give it a new, bizarre, and dangerous mission.

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

With the top conservative caucus in Congress acquiescing to his candidacy, Paul Ryan is largely certain to become the next Speaker of the House.

What will likely be the apex of the House Select Committee’s investigation of the Benghazi attack begins and ends today with the testimony of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.