Outside the Beltway

Increasing the minimum wage proved to be popular at the ballot box Tuesday, unsurprisingly, However, it did not help Democrats on the same ballot.

Everything old is new again.

Sobering news from the World Health Organization.

The death of the Tea Party is greatly exaggerated.

Chief Justice Roberts lamented recently that an increasingly partisan confirmation process could mean that Justices who have contributed much to the Court would not be confirmed today. He’s right.

The Tea Party v. “establishment” battle in the GOP has been pretty one-sided this year.

The Army is sending a strong message on sexual assault. It picked the wrong poster boy.

Another victory for marriage equality.

A pretty clear violation of the First Amendment.

A Tea Party battle in the Cornhusker State

The Supreme Court has again ruled that prayers that open legislative sessions are not unconstitutional.

It might not be pretty.

Once again, the Obama Administration punts on the Keystone XL Pipeline.

New York has joined nine other states and the District of Columbia to vote to for an Electoral College bypass.

Time to start talking about lame ducks?

Do prayers opening legislative sessions violate the First Amendment? The Supreme Court is set to decide that issue.

Are these four men our last, best hope for a deal that will end the shutdown and avoid breaching the debt ceiling?

To borrow a phrase from Stephen Colbert, if you want to understand how Congress works, you better know a District.

With just hours to go, the Republicans on Capitol Hill seem prepared to take a big political risk.

An absolutely ridiculous criminal case out of West Virginia.

Set backs for Pennsylvania in its effort to reverse the NCAA sanctions against Penn State, and a new lawsuit from the Paterno family. The Sandusky story returns.

The sequestration cuts are two months old, and it seems pretty clear that the claims of doom we heard before they went into effect were heavily exaggerated.

Southerners lie about their weight–but not as much as those lyin’ Yankees.

Rand Paul’s filibuster has made him a darling among conservatives but it may not last.

The Hagel confirmation, like Obama’s election, was big news to some avid news consumers.

For the moment, Republicans appear to be blocking Chuck Hagel’s nomination to be Secretary of Defense but they don’t seem to know why they’re doing it.

Chuck Hagel will be confirmed, but the campaign against him tells us much about the current state of Republican foreign policy

My latest for The National Interest, “Ignoring the Hagel Hearing Farce,” has posted.

Some proposed reforms just need to be ignored.

In “Veterans and Senate Buddies, Until Another War Split Them,” Elisabeth Bumiller profiles the relationship between Chuck Hagel and John McCain: