Outside the Beltway

A few long-awaited tweaks to the site design are now in place.

A survey of historians ranks Obama as the 15th best president ever, ahead of Ronald Reagan and behind Bill Clinton.

If people feel the need to evoke Reagan, it would be nice if they would evoke the real one, rather than an alt reality version.

South Carolina’s Lindsey Graham sees the beginning of the end of the Tea Parties, and he’s probably right.

Lindsey Graham ain’t gay, dang it.

America’s energy habit is getting people killed! What should we do about it?

Not surprisingly, Elena Kagan finished her testimony without giving any real ammunition to the Republicans.

The Democratic Senate primary in Arkansas may have been influenced by questionable poll results from Research 2000.

Did the American media cover up torture by the Bush Administration?

Israel and Turkey held secret, informal talks recently. This is interesting, given the recent flotilla incident. What is more interesting is that the Israeli Foreign Minister learned of the event via the press.

Arlen Specter is struggling with a reason not to vote against Elena Kagan.

Christopher Hitchens has esophageal cancer.

Topics include the Kagan hearings, the Dave Weigel brouhaha, and Russian spies.

After 69 years fighting crime in a star-spangled bathing suit, Wonder Woman will get a super hero costume.

Michael Gerson argues that the source of our polarization isn’t the Democrats and the Republicans but the Ugly Party and the Grown-Up Party.

Stanley McChrystal will be allowed to retire as a four-star general rather than suffer the indignity of being reduced to his permanent grade.

Africans are rallying around the Ghanaian World Cup team, putting aside stark differences. Should we be surprised?

The most shocking news about Larry King’s retirement announcement was the realization that he was still on the air.

Honest pollsters should deposit their raw data with the Roper Center to improve transparency.

George Will has some real questions for Elena Kagan. Too bad nobody’s going to ask them.

For the first month of Ricardo and Felicity’s affair, they greeted one another at every stolen rendezvous with a kiss — a lengthy, ravenous kiss, Ricardo lapping and sucking at Felicity’s mouth as if she were a giant cage-mounted water bottle and he were the world’s thirstiest gerbil.

Elena Kagan is not telling the truth when she says her politics are “completely separate” from her judging.

The testiest exchange during today’s hearings in the Senate came when Jeff Sessions tried to confront Elena Kagan over military recruiting at Harvard Law School, and failed miserably.

If you know where the JournoList archive is, Andrew Breitbart has got some cash for you.

The House GOP Leader is proposing that we get serious about Social Security reform.

California’s idea to have flashing ads on license plates may have some down side.

Congrats to Steve Clemons, whose “Washington Note” has been named one of TIME’s Best Blogs of 2010.

Google is getting serious about launching a Facebook competitor. Is it too late?

Markos Moulitsas gets a lesson in caveat emptor from his former pollster.

Elena Kagan’s interest in vigorous and open confirmation hearings ended roughly the moment she was sworn in by the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Rick Moran is noticing an odd pattern in political discourse.

Ten Russian agents posing as Americans and living in the suburbs of DC, New York, and Boston for a decade to glean valuable intelligence have been arrested by the FBI.