Outside the Beltway

By insisting on perfection in the debt ceiling debate, the Tea Party has made itself irrelevant to the process.

It was a largely fruitless weekend in the debt negotiations.

A few Republicans have picked up on John McCain’s criticism of critics of the Libya mission as being “isolationist.”

Recent polls seem to indicate a shift in public opinion in a more libertarian direction.

For the first time since the end of World War II, the GOP is wrestling with two diametrically opposed visions of foreign affairs.

Contrary to what Senator McCain, seeking realism in military policy does not make one an isolationist.

Don’t confuse moderation in tone with moderation in beliefs.

Kentucky Senator Rand Paul wants a full debate on the PATRIOT Act. What’s Congress so afraid of?

The Obama Administration is offering an odd explanation for why it doesn’t need to comply with the War Powers Act.

It has now been 60 days since American involvement in Libya commenced. Congress has failed to act, and that’s their fault.

Rand Paul has borrowed a bad idea from the 2008 Presidential campaign.

Thanks to an appearance on Hardball we’ve got another story about a 47 year old law.

The 60 day deadline for Presidential discretion under the War Powers Act will expire next week. Congress won’t do anything about it.

If you look at the Tea Party’s impact on state politics, you see it really isn’t much different from the Religious Right.

One of the Tea Party movement’s favorite Senators used the dreaded c-word.

The next week promises to be a battle between John Boehner and the Tea Party over whether or not compromise is a good idea.

President Obama’s new budget involves nothing less than a thumb in the eye of anyone who hoped he would seriously address federal spending in his first term.

The media are wildly exaggerating the heckling at a gathering of conservatives.

The debate over Senator Rand Paul’s proposed $500 billion spending cut plan has focused almost exclusively on one issue, and one nation.

Two Senators are proposing a Constitutional Amendment to redefine what it means to be an American citizen.

The Beast has released its The 50 Most Loathsome Americans of 2010, which I gather is supposed to be amusing rather than taken seriously.

Now that Republicans have the House, wouldn’t they be better off playing nice?

Within the first few months of 2011, Congress will be required to take another unpalatable vote to raise the debt ceiling. Already, some incoming Republicans are talking about waging an effort to block the vote. That would be politically, and financially, stupid.

At least one group of Tea Party activists seems to realize that their biggest mistake of the 2010 election cycle was backing candidates like Christine O’Donnell who turned out to be their own worst enemies.

Rand Paul is taking some heat for remarks that may or may not indicate that he’s backtracking on his previous vow not to seek earmark spending for Kentucky. Yes folks, the phony war on earmarks is back.

They’ve won the elections, but Republicans still aren’t getting specific about exactly where they’d cut Federal spending.