Outside the Beltway

The Catch-22 of passing a massive spending bill in an undemocratic system.

More machinations from the mischievous mining mouthpiece.

He beats the alternative.

Is the debate over the cost of the “infrastructure” bill a distraction from its content?

It’s not too late but it’s too late.

When he said he wouldn’t sign it if it wasn’t accompanied by a second bill, he wasn’t implying that he would veto it if it wasn’t.

Details are quite scant at the moment.

Are Sinema and Machin going to jump ship?

It’s no better than Joe Manchin’s.

Kinda, sorta, maybe, but probably not really.

The piling on continues.

We’re all apes. And some are willfully stupid about their public duties.

Or, at least, he’s willing to kill democracy in order to save it.

Cries that American democracy is in jeopardy are not hyperbole.

Could this be the straw that broke the camel’s back?

Mostly about how not to do it.

The flagship of the centrist Navy is both a throwback and a sign of what’s wrong with the Senate.

The President used his first speech to Congress as an attempt to unite the country.

It’s undemocratic and we should get rid of it. But doing so isn’t a panacea.

It doesn’t work like the movies, Senator.

A Trump-era policy designed to screw over blue states may actually be a good one.

While progressives in the party are often frustrated with the West Virginia Senator, he is demonstrating yet again that he’s no Republican.

Appoint more Asian American and Pacific Islanders. Or else!

Deal-making in Washington is next to impossible.

Defense of the filibuster tend to be a combo of mistakes and mythology.

A way-too-early assessment of how it’s going.

Reacting to the asymmetrical polarization of the electorate.

Is the stimulus bill it for this administration?

How the West Virginia Democrat came to vote for the stimulus bill.

The Senate parliamentarian has ruled against ramming it through in the COVID relief bill.

The Senate’s last conservative Democrat is taking President Biden’s call for unity seriously.

Early analysis merely confirms analysts’ priors.

Could the Vice President end the filibuster herself?

Specifically: the former confederacy and Democratic dominance.

It is not a tool to foster compromise. It is tool of obstruction, plain and simple.

Kamala Harris will be very, very busy the next two years.

An American hero is gone.

Multiple reports have the Notre Dame graduate replacing Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

The writing is on the wall for simple-majority voting in the Senate.

Donald Trump is the third President to be impeached by the House and acquitted by the Senate.

Surprising news from an unsurprising process.

In what many are seeing as a rebuke of the President, Louisiana voters re-elected Democratic incumbent John Bel Edwards over his Republican opponent.

Far-left Democrats in Arizona want to punish Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema for being exactly the kind of Senator she said she’d be when she ran for office a year ago.

While some Democrats are calling for the impeachment of Justice Brett Kavanaugh, Democrats on Capitol Hill aren’t nearly as eager to go down that road.

As he has in the past, President Trump has backed away from support for any gun control measures in the wake of the mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton.

On the Sunday shows today, one of the President’s top aides insisted that the Administration is seriously looking at the idea of buying Greenland even though it isn’t for sale.

Susan Collins hasn’t officially announced her intentions for 2020 just yet, but she looks like she’s running for re-election. If she does, she appears to be facing some political headwinds.

Last week, the House passed two bills to strengthen the laws regarding background checks for guns, but they’re not likely to even make it to the floor of the Senate.

William Barr was easily confirmed as Attorney General in a 54-45 votes that included three Democrats crossing over to support him.

The Senate rejected Republican and Democratic proposals as expected but there are some signs of movement forward.