Outside the Beltway

That a popular two-term governor of Utah is being rejected by likely Republican primary voters as insufficiently conservative shows just how extreme American politics has gotten.

Jon Huntsman just tweeted, “To be clear. I believe in evolution and trust scientists on global warming. Call me crazy.”

The map of states which allow collective bargaining for public sector employees doesn’t match up well with the map of right-to-work states.

State and AID budgets are a rounding error in the Defense budget.

Has WikiLeaks changed journalism forever?

The mental gymnastics people go through to justify their position on marijuana legalization are exhausting.

“I’m terribly surprised that everyone everywhere on the political spectrum (here and there) is using Tuesday’s results as confirmation of the assumptions they’ve held all along.” – Josh Marshall

Ivo Daalder, the US Ambassador to NATO, says that we are “seeing the corner and can peek around it in Afghanistan” and that a province-by-province handover of security responsibilities to the host government will “start in the first half of 2011.” But the final handover is not expected until “the end of 2014” and NATO forces will remain in an advisory capacity indefinitely. “The process will take years,” he emphasized.

The Pentagon has advised gay soldiers not to come out in the wake of a court order ending Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. This is a very pro-gay move.

A Public Policy Survey poll taken over the weekend — apparently the only survey taken thus far — has eccentric Tea Party candidate Christine O’Donnell leading Mike Castle 47-43 in the race for the Republican nomination for Delaware Senate contest that will be decided Tuesday.

Senate Republicans want to rethink the 14th Amendment’s automatic citizenship for people born in the U.S.