Outside the Beltway

A mild-mannered JD Vance out-debated a nervous Tim Walz. It won’t matter.

Revisiting an old post.

The Top Two system has created perverse incentives.

What’s more important, appearances or action?

When prejudice overrides simple humanity.

The New York Times looks into ties between a DC area law school and the Supreme Court.

The longest-serving Supreme Court Justice is a nice guy.

Is harassing judges, mayors, Senators, and the like in their private lives just free speech?

Crises tend to be distracting.

A roundup of reflection on a somber anniversary.

A conversation in two parts.

A piece in The Atlantic inspires thoughts.

It does not create better deliberation.

The 87-year-old former San Francisco mayor isn’t woke enough.

The one-time wunderkind, blogging pioneer, and same-sex marriage champion is now on the outs.

Free speech is not for everyone.

We’re a long, long way from normal.

He’s repelling the people he needs to mount a comeback.

The State of the Union is petulant.

The fifth Democratic debate brought some candidate clashes, but hardly the no-holds-barred type of event you might expect for this late in the pre-primary process.

Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz is ending a Presidential bid nobody knew existed.

Three new polls show significant changes in the Democratic race in the wake of last week’s debates.

Maryland Governor Larry Hogan has ruled out what would essentially be a quixotic primary challenge against President Trump.

Most of us define ourselves largely through our jobs. That’s increasingly a problem.

Based on the early stages of the campaign for the 2020 Democratic Presidential nomination, it appears as though the party’s progressive wing has misread the signals being sent by the party’s voters.

His passing is a sad reminder of another era of the Republican Party.

David Gergen lives in a fantasy world.

The former Attorney General is seriously pondering a presidential bid. Seriously.

Jeff Flake says he won’t be running against President Trump in 2020, but there may be others.

Washington said farewell to George H.W. Bush 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.

Who’s John Delaney? Well, he’s a Congressman from Maryland who’s apparently running for President.

The Party of Donald Trump has left no sane choice but to vote straight Democrat.

In a 2015 speech, he told law students that it’s vital for judges “To keep our emotions in check. To be calm amidst the storm.”

Ohio billionaire Les Wexner was a top Republican donor and fundraiser in Ohio, but not anymore.

In an extraordinary anonymous Op-Ed, a senior White House official describes a White House in chaos.

The first day of the Kavanaugh confirmation hearings was much ado about pretty much nothing, but then that can be used to describe a process whose outcome is pretty much foreordained.

Jennifer Rubin wants to build a new political party from scratch.

In his final words to his fellow Senators, and to his fellow Americans, Senator John McCain left a legacy, and a challenge.

President Trump reportedly vetoed a plan to issue a statement lauding Senator John McCain after he died on Saturday.

Sad news about a Senate stalwart who has been fighting an aggressive form of cancer for more than a year.

There is a frustration and a growing sense that the American political system is illegitimate.

More than a decade ago, Donald Trump revealed one of his secrets to success. Exhaust your enemies. It explains much of what has happened since he took office.

Conservatives claim to support freedom of speech and freedom of expression, but they’ve utterly failed that test when it comes to their reaction to players who peacefully and respectfully kneel during the National Anthem.

In a new book, Senator John McCain makes an announcement that everyone was anticipating.

Yesterday, the Supreme Court heard oral argument in a case pitting the First Amendment against the right of states to regulate elections.

Once again, Donald Trump has taken to Twitter to attack women, embarrass himself, and embarrass the nation he purports to represent.

In the end, there was no other logical choice.

In which I use a lot of words to say hello.

Last night’s debate was indeed the low point everyone anticipated it would be, but it seems unlikely to change the status quo.