Outside the Beltway

Chicago won’t have Rahm Emanuel to kick around anymore.

Washington said farewell to John McCain today in a service that both remembered his spirit and his heroism, and stands as a sharp rebuke to what politics has been reduced to in America today.

It’s not obvious that two more felons in the Trump inner circle will have any immediate impact.

RIP. Queen Of Soul

There was a time when Mike Pence believed that a President’s personality morality and trustworthiness mattered. He clearly doesn’t believe that anymore.

Special Counsel Robert Mueller is reportedly looking at the President’s Twitter feed as part of his ongoing investigation.

A three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals struck down part of a Hawaii law barring open carry of weapons, but this win for gun rights advocates may turn out to be short-lived.

A new recording of a conversation between Donald Trump and his one-time attorney/”fixer” Michael Cohen appears to put the President in a more difficult position than he has already been in.

Notwithstanding his dismissive public rhetoric about the former Vice-President, Donald Trump apparently sees Joe Biden as his biggest potential threat in 2020.

A selection that is likely to keep the Senate GOP united and red-state Democrats up for re-election under pressure to vote to confirm.

The National Debt has passed $21,000,000,000,000 for the first time in history just as the nation begins its return to the era of trillion dollar budget deficits.

Either the President of the United States is a knowing liar or he is very easily duped. Neither is a comforting thought.

The Department of Justice’s Inspector General found that former F.B.I. Director James Comey was ‘insubordinate’ in regard to the Clinton email investigation, but found no evidence of political bias at the Bureau.

Has the party paid too big a price to attract suburban voters?

Based on a strict reading of the Constitution, a sitting President probably does have the power to pardon himself. That doesn’t mean he should be allowed to get away with it without consequence.

Donald Trump may or may not be racist himself, but he has most certainly exploited and helped widen racial divisions ever since bursting on the political scene in 2015.

In the age of Trump, morality is optional for conservatives.

The Republican Governor of Missouri is resigning amid growing accusations related to an extramarital affair, blackmail, and sexual assault.

A Federal Judge in New York has ruled that President Trump cannot block users from reading his tweets.

Trump suffered another court loss yesterday that opens him up to some potentially embarrassing questions.

Robert Mueller has reportedly concluded that he cannot indict a sitting President. This is not a vindication of Trump, and merely upholds a conclusion that the Justice Department reached four decades ago.

61 percent of Americans have a favorable impression of a man who left office a failed president.

Rudy Giuliani is basically now suggesting that his client would be willing to set off a Constitutional crisis that would make Watergate seem like a picnic.

John McCain continues to bravely battle an aggressive form of brain cancer, but he’s already made clear that he doesn’t want the 45th President of the United States at his funeral.

To paraphrase the late Dennis Green, he is who we thought he was. 

The unemployment rate hit a point unseen since Bill Clinton was President in April, but jobs and wage growth remain tepid at best.

Stormy Daniels is suing the President for defamation after he accused her of lying about a threat made to her seven years ago.

Another one of Trump’s lawyers bites the dust, and hired someone with some very specific experience.

When it comes to a potential interview with Robert Mueller, President Trump faces risks no matter what form that interview takes.

Republicans are worried about 2018, and they’re even more worried that they have a President who is refusing to acknowledge political reality.

It’s a valid question, but one should also be careful about drawing conclusions based on how a person in Trump’s position acts.

The campaign-agnostic political science models predicted a toss-up in 2016 and again in 2020.

Barbara Bush, only the second woman in history to be the wife and mother of a U.S. President, has died at the age of 92.

Sean Hannity was Michael Cohen’s “secret client,” but it’s not clear that should matter to anyone.

The Editorial Board of the Newspaper of Record urges Congressional Republicans to steady themselves for a constitutional crisis.

President Trump is on the attack against James Comey as the former F.B.I. Director begins his book tour.

President Trump’s job approval numbers remain historically low.

Given a choice between Robert Mueller and Donald Trump, most Americans are siding with Mueller. Unless they’re Republicans that is.

Dan Drezner notes some challenges on this topic, and I add some of my own thoughts.

President Trump seems intent on walking away from the nuclear deal with Iran. If he does, he’ll be handing a gift to Iran and harming American national interests significantly.

A Federal Judge In New York City is allowing a lawsuit against the President’s DACA order to go forward, and he based part of his ruling on the President’s own rhetoric.

Like many Presidents before him, Donald Trump wants a line-item veto. Getting there won’t be easy, nor should it be.

A state trial court Judge in New York has ruled that a defamation lawsuit filed in Manhattan against President Trump can go forward.

The special counsel may be moving beyond the 2016 campaign and into post-election obstruction of justice.

Conor Lamb’s win in Pennsylvania’s 18th Congressional District has set off an inevitable debate inside the Democratic Party about how to approach the upcoming midterm elections.

North Korea’s Dear Leader has baited the President of the United States into a trap.

The 80-year-old Mississippi Republican, who was first elected to the Senate in 1978 after serving six years in the House, has been in poor health.

POLITICO buries the lede in making the case for “Donald Trump’s bubble presidency.”

The President jokingly praised his Chinese counterpart’s power grab at a fundraiser. But he seriously doesn’t understand the rule of law.