Outside the Beltway

As expected, Minnesota’s Governor has named his Lt. Governor to replace Al Franken in the Senate.

The Washington Post exposes another James O’Keefe fraud.

Senate Republicans have ten days to act on their last-ditch attempt to ‘repeal and replace’ Obamacare, and it’s not at all clear if they have the votes to do so.

A new poll shows that most Americans want Republicans want to move on from their failed effort to ‘repeal and replace’ the Affordable Care Act.

Seven years of rhetoric on health care reform ended early this morning with a narrow vote on a bill that even Republicans didn’t really support.

Thoughts on the quality of our democracy.

A big setback for Republican efforts to ‘repeal and replace’ Obamacare.

Senate Republicans released their proposed health care plan this morning, but it could already be doomed.

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

The American Health Care Act may have sailed through the House, but the Senate is another story.

Day One of the questioning of Judge Neil Gorsuch went very well, and it suggests that his path to confirmation is basically clear of serious obstacles.

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

The Ragnarok and Roll Edition OTB Caption Contest^TM is now over.

The Federal Judge presiding over Dylann Roof’s murder trial suggested late last week that Roof may not presently be competent to stand trial. This does not mean that he’ll be set free, though.

Two Republican Senators are exchanging barbs over the idea that the GOP should block any attempt by Hillary Clinton to nominate anyone to the Supreme Court if she becomes President.

The least likely choice ascends to the Number Two position on the Republican ticket.

Depending on the outcome of the election, the Supreme Court’s just concluded term will most likely be remembered as the point at which the Court’s rightward tilt that began at the end of the Warren Court Era came to an end.

The Supreme Court has handed down a major abortion rights ruling that reaffirms the central reasoning of Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, and makes it less likely that Roe will ever be overturned.

The murder of Jo Cox, MP is looking more and more like a politically motivated assassination, and that’s causing some in Great Britain to look inward.

Oklahoma’s Republican legislature passed a clearly unconstitutional bill outlawing abortion in the state.

No trial for Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood Robert Dear, at least not for now.

The Supreme Court seems as closely divided as ever on an issue that has divided the nation for forty years, but the implications of Justice Scalia’s death were quite apparent during oral argument in the Texas Abortion Law case.

With less than three weeks to go before voting starts, the Republican candidates for President clashed in their most contentious debate so far.

A five minute segment on the O’Reilly Factor clearly underscores how intertwined he is in secular politics.

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

Ted Cruz surges to a lead in the latest Iowa poll, setting up a seemingly inevitable showdown between the Texas Senator and Donald Trump.

The man who killed three and wounded several others at a Colorado Planned Parenthood seemingly admitted guilt and motive in a courtroom outburst, but questions about his mental capacity remain.

The no-fly list is a flawed, arbitrary mess that has kept innocent people from flying for years. Using it to deny people rights recognized by the Constitution is, quite honestly, insane.

The suspects in the San Bernardino shootings are dead, but that’s about all we know so far this morning.

Blaming political opponents for criminal acts they clearly didn’t commit or advocate isn’t a political argument, it’s demagoguery.

We still don’t know very much about Robert Dear, the man who shot and killed three people at the site of a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado, but that hasn’t stopped the usual suspects from politicizing the case.

A gunman is holed up in a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs after shooting multiple people, but it’s unclear what if any motive may be involved in the shooting.

The Supreme Court has accepted a case involving a new Texas abortion law for review, the first abortion rights case it will hear in eight years.

A new Gallup poll shows public approval of Congress once again approaching historic lows, but it means far less than anyone thinks.

Congress and the White House have reached a tentative deal on the budget and debt ceiling that promises to make Paul Ryan’s initial months as Speaker a lot easier.

The Department of Justice has informed Congress that its investigation has found no basis for criminal charges arising out of the targeting of conservative organizations by IRS officials evaluating applications for tax-exempt status.

Another Republican Congressman has said that the Select Committee investigating the Benghazi attack is primarily concerned with scoring political points against Hillary Clinton.

Congress will get a temporary funding bill passed in time to avoid a shutdown on Thursday, but it may just be delaying the inevitable.

Big news out of Washington, D.C.

Congress has just over a week to pass a funding bill, and it’s not looking very good.

The first significant national polls taken in the wake of last week’s debate show that Donald Trump has slipped somewhat, but still remains the clear leader of the Republican race for President.

The latest effort by conservative Republicans to oust John Boehner appears to be coming to an unsurprising end.

The Republican candidates for President took to the stage last night for a debate that seemed to last forever and accomplished nothing.

With two weeks left until the Federal Government runs out of money, and the issue still quite unresolved, a new poll shows that the vast majority of Americans would oppose a government shutdown over funding for Planned Parenthood.

Speaker John Boehner seems likely to see another leadership threat from fellow Republicans this fall.

Mitch McConnell spoke a truth that many conservatives are likely not going to want to accept.

Some Republicans are threatening a government shutdown over funding of Planned Parenthood, but a new poll shows that it would be a big political risk for Republicans.