Outside the Beltway

Donald Trump leads in the first of the final polls to be released before Thursday’s debate.

The first of a series of polls in anticipation of next week’s debate shows Donald Trump still at the top, with a surprise coming out of Ohio.

His remarks about John McCain’s military service don’t seem to be hurting Donald Trump with Republican true believers.

Despite his remarks about John McCain, Donald Trump is likely to be around for some time to come.

Taxes on wine, beer, and spirits vary wildly from state-to-state and even within each state.

Donald Trump has gotten almost nothing but negative press since entering the race for President, but it doesn’t seem to be hurting him very much just yet.

The Attorney General of Texas is responding to the Supreme Court’s marriage ruling by telling Clerk’s who issue marriage license that they are free to ignore the law.

There’s a lot of pandering and outright nonsense in the wake of the Supreme Court’s legalization of gay marriage.

The reaction of many of the GOP candidates to the decision in Obergefell v. Hodges is about what you’d expect, but there are a few interesting surprises.

Republicans aren’t going to like this one.

Political reality shows us that the shootings in Charleston are not going to have any appreciable impact on the likelihood of any type of gun control law passing anywhere outside of the bluest of the blue states.

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal enters the Presidential race today, but it’s hard to see how he even manages to become a plausible candidate.

As Governor Haley pushes the South Carolina legislature to take the Confederate Flag down, the movement moves beyond the Palmetto State.

The head of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis has resigned in the wake of criminal charges for covering up sexual abuse of children.

A new North Carolina law allows government employees to decline to perform their jobs by claiming it violates their “religious liberty.”

Once seen as a rising Republican star, Bobby Jindal’s impending Presidential bid now looks like it’s over before it begins.

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker isn’t officially a candidate for President yet, but he’s doing quite well in Iowa anyway.

Marco Rubio seems to be in lockstep with the extreme social conservatives when it comes to same-sex marriage.

Rand Paul is out with one of his more forceful attacks on Republican hawks to date.

What if they held a straw poll and nobody came?

Thwarted by the legislature, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal used his executive power to take action that seems directed more toward evangelicals in Iowa than anything happening in his home state.

With 14 candidates vying for the Republican nomination, TV execs are scrambling to make the debates watchable.

The Republican debate stage in 2016 is going to be even more crowded than it was in 2012.

Once again, only six or seven states are likely to matter.

Two Republican candidates for President say that Republican elected officials should simply ignore the Supreme Court if it strikes down bans on same-sex marriage.

Former Hewlett Packard CEO, and failed Senate candidate, Carly Fiorina will be running for President for some reason.

Five years after it became law, the Republican effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act appears to be over.

A new poll suggests that the American public does not support laws that give religious exemptions to businesses that want to discriminate based on sexual orientation.

A bill pending in Louisiana seems likely to become the next national focus in the debate between marriage equality and claims of ‘religious freedom.’

Kentucky has offered the Supreme Court a defense of its ban on same-sex marriage that seems laughable.

Another tone deaf action from leading Republicans.

As expected, Republicans have caved in the showdown over funding for the Department of Homeland Security.

By refusing to stay the legalization of same-sex marriage in Alabama, the Supreme Court has sent the strongest signal yet that it is ready to legalize same-sex marriage nationwide.

Scott Walker surged to the top of a new poll of Iowa Republicans, but Iowa is not a very good predictor of success in the race for the GOP nomination.

The Tea Party may be the most vocal wing of the GOP but most Republicans seems to favor candidates that aren’t quite so right wing.

December’s jobs growth numbers were very good, but the numbers below the headlines show that there’s still work to be done.

Just one day into the new Congress, the first confrontation is already set.

Shortly after the new year, we could know whether or not the Supreme Court will issue a definitive ruling on same-sex marriage by the end of June.

Despite opposition from both Republicans and Democrats, the compromise budget resolution passed narrowly last night, but not without some last minute drama

Some on the left are suggesting Democrats should write off the South for the foreseeable future, but that would be as foolish as Republicans assuming that their dominance in the region will last as long as Democratic dominance did in the century after the Civil War.

A crushing but expected defeat for a veteran Democrat.

Texas has joined with 16 other states in a lawsuit against the Obama Administration over the President’s executive action on immigration. At first glance, it doesn’t appear to have much legal merit.

It’s an old story. Republican leadership wants to avoid a government shutdown, but the hard core conservatives want a fight, this time over the President’s immigration action. We have a week to see how it unfolds.

Columbus, Philadelphia, or New York City (well, Brooklyn really)?

Fresh off his third statewide win in four years, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker appears to be getting ready to run for President.