Outside the Beltway

Before even taking office, Mitt Romney is taking on the President. It’s a good sign, but we’ll see what it leads to.

President Trump began 2019 pretty much how he ended 2018, with irrational rants on Twitter.

Democrats have unveiled what appears as if it will be their first effort to end the shutdown, but there are already signs Republicans will reject it.

As 2018 draws to a close, there’s no sign that the government shutdown will end any time soon.

The TPP is about to go into effect without the US.

Congress will not be returning to Washington until some time next week. Thus guaranteeing that this shutdown will last at least through January 3rd.

The fact that this President is a congenital liar is well-known. The actual number of lies less than two years into his Presidency, though, is astounding.

With the economy appearing to sour, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin is quickly becoming the President’s latest target of criticism.

Christmas is behind us, but don’t expect any progress when it comes to the government shutdown, which is in its fifth day.

President Trump tried to get into the Christmas spirit last night. He failed.

With Congress out of town until at least Thursday and negotiations apparently deadlocked, the White House is saying it’s likely the shutdown will last into 2019.

President Trump is now apparently on the warpath against the Federal Reserve Board Chairman he appointed only a year ago.

Trump doesn’t understand (nor respect) the role of the Fed.

With just hours to go, a partial government shutdown is becoming more and more likely.

Tennessee will have an open Senate seat in 2020 thanks to Lamar Alexander’s decision to retire at the end of his current term.

The Senate passed a bill that keeps the government funded through the beginning of February, but fails to provide any funding for the President’s border wall.

The latest entry in the unity third party presidential candidate genre is just as bad as they always are.

With three days to go before a government shutdown, there are at least some signs that the President may be backing away from his threats to shut down the government over funding for his border wall.

With the Friday night deadline fast approaching, nobody in Washington seems to know what’s going on.

Republicans scored a win in Court last week, but it seems likely to lead to a political loss in the long-term.

Former Vice-President Biden and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders are, not surprisingly, leading the early polls for the 2020 Democratic nomination.

Thanks apparently to the fact that it remained unwilling to get in line behind the Trumpidians, the conservative owner of The Weekly Standard has shut the magazine down.

Trump has selected current Budget Director Mick Mulvaney to replace John Kelly as Chief of Staff, but that’s unlikely to change how the West Wing operates.

U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor contends that a recent change in tax law unravels the basis for the Supreme Court’s upholding of Obamacare.

More evidence that President Trump was an active participant in the scheme to silence Karen McDougal and Stormy Daniels in advance of the 2016 election.

The publisher of the National Enquirer admits that it made payments to a Playboy model for the purpose of protecting Donald Trump’s campaign for President.

The President’s former lawyer and “fixer” Michael Cohen has been sentenced to three years in prison for his role in assisting the President in various scandals and cover-ups.

Senator Mitch McConnell and others are blocking a criminal justice reform bill currently pending in the Senate.

The verdict of last month’s elections was clear, but Republicans still don’t seem to get it.

This month’s budget fight is likely the last chance the President will have to get any funding for his border wall.

This time, the rumors about John Kelly leaving appear to be true.

Special Counsel Robert Mueller and the U.S, Attorney for the Southern District of New York have filed sentencing memos that directly implicate the President in a series of felonies.

Jobs Growth in November was healthy but fell short of expectations.

There’s yet another rumor that White House Chief of Staff John Kelly could be on the way out.

Trump has reportedly told aides that he doesn’t really care about reports of an approaching crisis of the budget deficit and national debt because he’ll be out of office before it becomes a problem.

Honoring the 41st President cast a poor light on the 45th.

Citing substantial cooperation, Special Counsel Robert Mueller is recommending no jail time for former Trump associate Michael Flynn.

Michael Avenatti, the California lawyer best known for representing Stormy Daniels in her claims against the President, is dropping a bid for the Democratic nomination that never seemed like a serious effort.

Notwithstanding the temptation to do something, both the United States and NATO need to resist the temptation to get involved in the latest conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

The 2020 campaign is already heating up, and California Senator Kamala Harris could be one of the first serious candidates for President to throw her hat in the ring.

Despite aggressive vaccination efforts, measles cases surged worldwide last year. You can “thank” that anti-vaccination movement.

Presidents Trump and Xi have agree to a “90 day cease fire” on new tariffs. This means that Trump will not raise tariffs on Chinese imports that were scheduled to take effect on January 1st of next year. The tariffs will go into effect if the two countries cannot reach an agreement within that 90 day time frame.

Donald Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen plead guilty to lying to Congress about Trump’s business dealings with Russia, and has agreed to cooperate with Robert Mueller’s investigation.

Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar is reportedly considering a bid for the Democratic Presidential Nomination in 2020.

In the end, the race between Cindy Hyde-Smith and Mike Espy was not even close.

President Trump’s job approval numbers continue to be worse than those of any President since the end of World War Two.

A brewing fight over funding for the President’s border wall could throw a monkey wrench into plans to pass a budget by next Friday.

Even as its leader continues to deny the reality of Global Climate Change, the Trump Administration has released an utterly devastating report on the impact of such change over the course of the coming decades.

Preliminary figures indicate that voter turnout in the 2018 midterms was higher than it has been for any midterm election in fifty-two years.