Outside the Beltway

The Republicans are increasingly the party of white America. That’s short term good but long term bad for the GOP.

Freshman Members of Congress are threatening to block a vote to raise the debt ceiling that Congress will have to take by this Spring. They’d be irresponsible if they did so.

Will the Tea Party Movement grow up?

Constitutional ambiguity is as old as, well, it’s as old as the Constitution itself

The usage of the recess appointment process is just another example of the need for institutional reform in the Senate.

With just over a week to go before the 112th Congress convenes, battle lines are already being drawn in battle over the defense budget.

Frustrated that it couldn’t achieve desired environmental legislation despite huge majorities in both Houses of Congress, the Obama administration has decided to govern by executive fiat.

Those who argue that tariff increases, and not slavery, were the key reason for secession have some basic problems with the historical sequence.

If Democrats had been this effective the previous two years, would they have lost as badly in November?

Might Rudy do better in 2012 than he did in 2008?

Red States should gain 10 seats while Blue States should lose eight.

The repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell is a sign that the political ground is shifting. Will the GOP take notice?

The 20th Amendment was supposed to eliminate lame duck sessions, but it didn’t.

Do graduates of elite colleges earn more because of where they went to school? Or because of the traits that got them selected?

The battle over the individual mandate is really just nothing more than the latest round in a batter that has been ongoing for 221 years.

Are Marco Rubio, Haley Barbour, and Mike Huckabee the favorites to win the White House?

A new poll shows that the American public is discontented, nervous about the economy, not entirely sure they can trust the new GOP majority in Congress, and has no idea what it wants from Washington. Sounds like a recipe for disaster.

One of the most active American diplomats of the past twenty-five years has passed away.

Politics makes for strange bedfellows and, when it comes to the debate over the extension of the Bush tax cuts, anti-tax Republicans are making common cause with soak-the-rich progressives.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg says he isn’t running for President, but he’s sure acting like a guy who’s at least thinking about it.

President Obama is already taking heat from the left for his compromise on tax cut extensions, but will it actually hurt him in the end?

President Obama and the GOP have reached a deal on extending the Bush tax cuts that gives the GOP virtually everything it wanted.

How would appointed Senators affect the partisan mix of the Senate?

Republican maneuvering to extend the Bush tax cuts for all Americans appears about to pay off.

They aren’t going to stop, but the cliches that pass for debate sure are tiresome (plus some musings about the tax cut extension debate).

Republican pollster Glen Bolger makes a bold promise: The GOP will retain House control in 2012 – Guaranteed.

Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley wants to fix the filibuster by making Senators actually filibuster. It’s a good idea.

The Republican Party is united on the issues in a way it hasn’t been in a long time, but personalities threaten to tear the fragile coalition apart.

Is President Obama’s Federal pay freeze a sign that he’s moving to the right, or just pointless symbolism?

Nearly four weeks after Election Day, Alaska’s Joe Miller still won’t concede the inevitable.

The Republican talking point that lowering taxes lowers spending and raising taxes increases spending is denied by reality.

President Obama is likely join the ranks of the unemployed come noon on January 20, 2013 if a Fed forecast is right.

According to a new poll, the Tea Party movement, which is largely now the base of the GOP, is not completely in step with the views of American voters as a whole.

The latest forecast from the Federal Reserve foresees stagnant growth and high unemployment for the next two years.

Some on the right are beginning to realize that Sarah Palin’s popularity may cause a serious problem for the GOP in 2012.