Outside the Beltway

Hillary Clinton isn’t running for anything in 2018, but that isn’t stopping Republicans from running against her.

The Democratic National Committee has filed a lawsuit alleging a wide-ranging conspiracy to influence the 2016 election. As a legal document, it appears to be little more than a political stunt.

Cuba has a new President and he isn’t named Castro, but that doesn’t mean we’re going to see significant change in the near future.

New polling shows the Democrat’s lead in the Congressional ballot poll shrinking slightly, but enthusiasm is still on their side.

Without Congressional authorization, any attack on Syria would be illegal, but don’t expect Congress to do anything about it.

Like many Presidents before him, Donald Trump wants a line-item veto. Getting there won’t be easy, nor should it be.

Things are looking good for Democrats in 2018, but there’s some speculation that Nancy Pelosi’s position at the head of the party in the House could be in danger.

Conor Lamb’s win in Pennsylvania’s 18th Congressional District has set off an inevitable debate inside the Democratic Party about how to approach the upcoming midterm elections.

Republicans are claiming that Conor Lamb won Tuesday’s Special Election in Pennsylvania because he campaigned as a conservative. These people are either deluded or lying.

Individual races are idiosyncratic. But there are nonetheless some lessons here.

Tomorrow’s Special Election in Pennsylvania isn’t looking good for Republicans, even if their candidate manages to eke out a win.

After skipping such events in his first thirteen months in office, the President tried his hand at stand-up last night to mixed reviews.

Despite the activism we’ve seen in the wake of the school shooting in Florida, it’s unlikely that we’ll see significant Congressional action on guns.

The Tea Party is dead, but it was never really alive to begin with.

Congress seems likely to pass a budget deal today that will massively increase spending, putting to rest once and for all the rank hypocrisy of Republicans when it comes to claims that they are “fiscally conservative.”

Congress appears to be moving closer to a budget deal even as the President tries to throw a monkey wrench into the whole thing.

Recent polls have caused Republicans to become more optimistic about their chances in this year’s midterms. That optimism is both premature and misplaced.

With Republicans fully in control in Washington, their concerns about the budget deficit seem to have disappeared.

In addition to deadlines on the Federal Budget and DACA, Congress also has to deal with the debt ceiling at some point in the next month.

Do yourself a favor and skip the State Of The Union Address tonight. You won’t be missing anything important.

With less than two days to go, the prospects for Congress finding a way to prevent a government shutdown aren’t looking good.

Republicans passed their tax bill yesterday. What that means for the economy and the 2018 midterms is another question.

In what amounts to an electoral perfect storm, Democratic nominee Doug Jones pulled off a win last night in the Alabama Senate Election.

A top Republican political analyst is warning that a Roy Moore victory in Alabama could pose real problems for Republicans in 2018. If it does, they’ll have nobody to blame but themselves.

Donald Trump’s Jerusalem decision reveals yet again that he is an appallingly bad deal maker.

The longest-serving member of the House has retired amid allegations of sexual misconduct.

The current temporary spending measure reached by Congress in September expires on Friday, and Republicans haven’t come up with a solution yet.

Senator Al Franken faces new charges of sexually inappropriate conduct on the same day that House Democrats are beginning to pressure one of their members to resign.

The early numbers in the battle to control Congress look good for Democrats, but there are are a number of caveats to keep in mind.

Roy Moore’s victory in Alabama is raising fears of a wider battle in the Republican Party heading into 2018.

Most Americans don’t support President Trump’s statements about the protests by N.F.L. players, but it’s just another example of him using hateful rhetoric to pander to his base.

Trump makes a DACA deal, apparently.

Perhaps it’s time to consider getting rid of the debt ceiling entirely.

Donald Trump made a deal with Democrats on spending and the debt ceiling, but it was an exceedingly bad one.

The Trump Administration has reportedly finalized its order to the Defense Department regarding a ban on military service by transgender soldiers.

On the special election for US Senate in Alabama

Some thoughts on the current state of the Democrats.

In one of the most closely watched Special Elections in American history, the outcome turned out to be not entirely surprising.

In addition to everything else on its plate, Congress will have to revisit raising the debt ceiling again sometime this summer.

By the barest of margins, the House passed its bill repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act, but the future of that bill is highly uncertain.

Once again, the GOP punts on ‘repeal and replace’ because they don’t have the votes.

Faced with the fact that it has little to show for its first 100 days in office, the Trump Administration is pressuring Congress to come up with a new health care reform bill before the end of next week.

Whether you call it TrumpCare, RyanCare, or GOPCare, the Republican replacement for the PPACA isn’t very impressive.

Could National Security Adviser Michael Flynn be the first to go under Trump?

On the eve of the 115th Congress, House Republicans voted to gut a key office charged with investigating Congressional ethics.

To the surprise of nobody who paid attention, Nancy Pelosi won re-election as leader of the House Democrats.

In what seems like a replay of the primary battle between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, some top Democratic Party leadership positions may be in jeopardy.

We’re further from a public option than we were in 2009. The need for it has become more acute.

Hillary Clinton won the final Super Tuesday of the 2016 primary season, thus officially sending us into what promises to be among the most contentious General Election battles in recent memory.

The final spending bill for the 2016 Fiscal Year sailed through Congress today, marking the end of a very successful first two months in office for Speaker Paul Ryan