Outside the Beltway

A slap on the wrist underscores the bottom-up nature of US parties.

There are some signs that there may be room to strike a deal on the extension of unemployment benefits, but it’s likely to require some drama on Capitol Hill before it happens.

An excellent argument for immigration reform can be found in the case of one Californian named Sergio Garcia.

From Florida, a small victory for Fourth Amendment rights.

Has Speaker Boehner breathed new life into immigration reform in the House? Maybe.

Ted Cruz continues to act as if he hasn’t learned his lessons from the shutdown debacle

Much like the guy who’s afraid to talk to girls in High School, Republicans don’t seem to know how to talk to women. But their problems are actually bigger than that.

Republican hardliners are pushing a position on immigration that is completely out of sync with the nation as a whole.

It wasn’t a Thermonuclear move, more like something the size of Hiroshima, but today the Senate took an historic move nonetheless.

After the GOP blocked a series of Obama judicial nominees, Democrats are again threatening to go nuclear on filibuster reform.

The battle for marriage equality has scored a number of victories in a short period of time, but that’s about to change.

The House wasted a day yesterday, now it’s crunch time.

Are these four men our last, best hope for a deal that will end the shutdown and avoid breaching the debt ceiling?

Two states are creating a voting system that will make some people ineligible to vote in state and local elections.

Author Elmore Leonard has died at the age of 87.

The president’s 2008 rival has gone from bitter foe to go-to deal broker.

Megan Welter served as a Signal Corps officer in the Iraq War. Now, she’s an Arizona Cardinals cheerleader.

Colonel Bud Day, who earned a Medal of Honor leading Vietnam POWs, had died, aged 88 years.

Evidence that George Zimmerman acted out of racial bias is completely lacking, which means the Federal Government should stay out of this case entirely.

There are many fallacies contained within the GOP’s insistence that immigration reform must begin and end with “border security.”

The marriage equality battle is entering its next phase.

Words don’t always mean what you think they mean.

The Senate passed an immigration reform bill today, but it’s not going to go anywhere.

The Supreme Court today struck down the most controversial part of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Why did House Republicans vote overwhelmingly for a bill that their own theories would find to be unconstitutional?

Yesterday, the Supreme Court narrowly decided a case on the right against self-incrimination that is likely to do great harm to individual rights.

Scott Walker could be the GOP’s surprise candidate in 2016.

Today’s decision by the Supreme Court was, on the surface, a victory for Federal Supremacy, but the issue itself is far from resolved.

Sometimes it seems like all John McCain does is appear on Sunday morning news shows. The problem goes deeper than that, though.

The man some of called America’s toughest Sheriff has been dealt a setback by a Federal Judge.

The economics of higher education is increasing the gap between rich and poor.

Long suffering fans of the Dallas Cowboys, including myself and Steven Taylor, have a love-hate relationship with owner-general manager Jerry Jones. cowb

New questions about the interrogation of the surviving Boston Marathon bombing suspect.

Several Senators who voted against the Manchin/Toomey background checks bill have suffered in the polls, but it’s unclear if that matters in the long run.

John McCain’s problems in 2008 went far beyond an economic crisis.

The Senate’s rejection of the Manchin/Toomey background checks bill isn’t particularly outraging the general public, according to a new poll.