Outside the Beltway

Up to 13 people are dead and as many 20 injured after another mass shooting on a college campus.

Rand Paul’s fundraising in the just completed quarter is disappointing enough that it’s clearly time for him to consider calling it a day.

With Russia now launching its own airstrikes in Syria, it’s become obvious that U.S. policy in the Syrian Civil War is irrational and contradictory. And Russia’s policy isn’t any better.

Vice-President Biden will apparently not be at the first Democratic debate, which may be yet another sign that he’s not running for President.

Budget cuts mean it is now harder to get an ID in much of Alabama.

The criteria for next month’s third Republican Presidential debate have been announced, and they’re likely to end up being bad news for several Republican candidates.

The man who will likely be the next Speaker of the House accidentally acknowledged the real motivation behind the Select Committee investigating, yet again, the Benghazi attack.

RNC Chairman Reince Priebus suggested that Iowa and New Hampshire shouldn’t get used to their place at the top of the primary calendar. He’s right, but fixing the crazy system that put them there isn’t going to be easy.

Congress will get a temporary funding bill passed in time to avoid a shutdown on Thursday, but it may just be delaying the inevitable.

Trump remains in the lead, but he has been steadily falling over the month of September. (And this triggers, as these things do, musings about institutions and our party system).

The next Republican debate is likely to be a lot smaller than the previous two, and that could prove fatal for several candidates.

John Boehner let loose on the “false prophets” on the right yesterday, and he’s absolutely right.

A bizarre hatchet job on Carly Fiorina’s autobiography.

WaPo’s Robert Costa reveals an emotional reaction by the Speaker to the papal visit to Congress.

She’s where she’ belongs.

Big news out of Washington, D.C.

One week after the second Republican debate, Donald Trump is still at the top of the GOP field, and that doesn’t seem likely to change any time soon.

When did “politics” become a dirty word?

Vice-President Biden continues to rise in the polls even though he has yet to actually enter the race for President.

The Club For Growth has released two ads criticizing Donald Trump, so of course Trump is threatening to sue them.

Congress has just over a week to pass a funding bill, and it’s not looking very good.

Two gone: 14 to go.

Once a candidate that many believed could become the Republican nominee, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker is dropping out of the race for President.

The pressure on Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz to expand the 2016 debate schedule is increasing.

Hillary Clinton seems to be bouncing back from recent troubles in the latest national poll, but Vice-President Biden is starting to rise in the polls before even getting in the race.

The U.S. is set to ramp up its contribution to dealing with the Syrian refugee crisis, but there’s a lot more we can do.

The first significant national polls taken in the wake of last week’s debate show that Donald Trump has slipped somewhat, but still remains the clear leader of the Republican race for President.

More bigotry in the campaign.

Time is running out for Joe Biden to make a decision about running for President, and it’s still not clear what he’ll do.

A lawyer for one of the Deputy Clerks working for Kim Davis raises the concern that she is once again interfering with the issuance of marriage licenses in violation of a Federal Court Order.

There was far too much pseudoscience in evidence during the Republican Debate on Wednesday.

More than 23 million people watched the debate Wednesday night.

The final effort to block the Iran Nuclear Deal failed in the Senate yesterday, meaning that the deal will now move forward.

At a town hall last night in New Hampshire, it became clear just what kind of supporters Donald Trump’s demagoguery is attracting.

After months of hinting that interest rates would be rising this month, signs of economic weakness led the Federal Reserve to hold back.

With the exception of Rand Paul, the foreign policy discussion at last night’s debate was about as bad as you’d expect.

The latest effort by conservative Republicans to oust John Boehner appears to be coming to an unsurprising end.

The Republican candidates for President took to the stage last night for a debate that seemed to last forever and accomplished nothing.

What was promoted as major foreign policy speech by Donald Trump turned out to be more substance-free stream-of-consciousness rambling from an egomaniac.

A Texas 9th Grader named Ahmed Mohammed was arrested because school officials and police refused to believe that the clock he built wasn’t a bomb.