Outside the Beltway

As talk begins of expanding the war against ISIS into Syria, it is becoming long past time for Congress to exercise its Constitutional function.

So far at least, there is no evidence that 2014 will be a “wave election.”

Some have argued that there is an historical bias against political parties holding on to the White House for more than two terms. As with most commonly held ideas, that simply isn’t true.

If Republicans win the Senate, what we’ve seen for the past three years could end up seeming tame by comparison.

Yet another example of how institutional choices matter.

Some on the left are saying that Hillary Clinton isn’t doing enough to help Democrats in 2014.

In what would be a classic bit of political irony, polling indicates that the House lawsuit against the President could make Democrats more likely to vote in November.

The United States is, in fact, doing the exact opposite.

There are plenty of other factors that help our two major parties retain power.

It’s hard for a party to win four straight presidential elections. The Democrats may pull it off.

President Obama doesn’t seem to have any idea what he wants to do in Iraq.

Trouble in paradise for two of Hawaii’s top Democrats?

The numbers are shocking!

End game? Or the potential spark of a wider war?

A major voting rights ruling out of North Carolina.

There is simply no evidence of the kind of in-person voter impersonation that Voter ID Laws were designed to prevent.

Once something that generally benefited Republicans, social issues are now becoming a wedge issue for Democrats.

Republicans in the House seem determined to make life difficult for whomever wins the GOP nomination in 2016

The Tea Party v. “establishment” battle in the GOP has been pretty one-sided this year.

Our non-competitive political system.

Once again, we are reminded that the fact that people feel strongly about an issue does not mean it’s one that will cause them to get out and vote.

Your tax dollars, not at work.

Notwithstanding the hype, there’s one very big reason why the idea of Elizabeth Warren as a viable candidate for President doesn’t make much sense.

It wasn’t the Democrats.

According to some reports, President Obama may be about to make an end run around Congressional inaction on immigration reform.

Republicans are dismissing talk of impeachment as a Democratic fundraising ploy, but it may be they are protesting just a bit too much.

The American people don’t want to turn those migrant children from Central America away after all.

The Hobby Lobby decision could end up motivating women voters to turn out to vote against Republicans in the fall.

Things are getting serious in eastern Ukraine.

Once again the GOP finds itself on the wrong side of public opinion.

Turnout to date for the 2014 primaries is at record lows, but its unclear what that tells us about November.

Vladimir Putin has become immensely popular in Russia again, and its not hard to figure out why.

If Hillary Clinton is going to have a serious challenge in 2016, the person who will do that has yet to emerge.

Rather than being a bad thing, negative campaigning is an essential part of our political system.

It appears that the GOP still has a problem communicating with women.

The various factions in Afghanistan have agreed, at least in principle, to alter the nation’s government as part of a deal to resolve election disputes.

Led by Speaker John Boehner, Republican leaders are trying to placate calls for impeachment.

Trying to make sense of a very complicated issue.

The current Congress is on course to be the least productive in decades.

Judging by the early results, the so-called “Right To Be Forgotten” recently created by Europe’s highest court is creating more problems than it will solve.