Outside the Beltway

Whether he knows it or not, Donald Trump is assisting the Russian leader in his goal of undermining the foundational institutions of democracy and freedom.

With hours to go before they were set to start. the President delayed the mass deportation raids that were supposed to begin this morning.

For 2020, Kansas Democrats are making some interesting changes to how they will have a say in he race for the Democratic nomination.

A new poll finds that a small majority of Americans support abolishing the Electoral College, but that’s not nearly enough to make any change in how we elect Presidents possible.

Jack Goldsmith pushed back on “over the top” reaction to the AG’s handling of the Mueller report.

The attorney general hasn’t said a single thing that wasn’t technically true about the Mueller report. But he was dishonest.

When it comes to Herman Cain’s nomination to the Federal Reserve Board, the answer is officially Nein, Nein, Nein!

The White House appears to be preparing for the worst when it comes to the nominations of Herman Cain and Stephen Moore to the Federal Reserve Board.

Both major parties have claimed victory but it certainly looks like Likud will hang on.

Per-student investment in public colleges has not recovered from the Great Recession.

The tumultuous turnover at the top of the Trump team is too much.

John Fund thinks I am afraid of Stephen Moore (and that I am an economist). He is wrong on both counts.

The mea culpas and I-told-you-so’s are rather premature.

Many are calling for the UK Prime Minister’s ouster. But the problem is Brexit itself, not any one leader.

Our most prolific front-pager hasn’t posted in two weeks. Readers are beginning to ask questions.

Deny them the pleasure of an angry reaction, and they’ll probably leave you alone.

The mysterious disappearance of long-time OTB commenters.

The cases of Ralph Northam and Mark Herring raise a question of when, if ever, something we did in the past should follow us for the rest of our lives.

A man somehow got elected governor without being very good at politics.

Virgnia’s governor has to resign. But not because of some 35-year-old photos.

The way we elect Presidents make it unlikely that a third-party candidate like Howard Schultz could ever actually win the the Presidency.

President Trump put an offer on the table to end the shutdown, the question is whether it will actually lead anywhere.

After a barrage of criticism, New Jersey Democrats are abandoning a controversial redistricting proposal.

Donald Trump is engaging in another round of baseless and bizarre conspiracy theories about alleged voter fraud.

The emergence of a silly talking point.

New allegations of sexual misconduct mark the start of a crucial week for the confirmation of Judge Brett Kavanaugh.

We’ll likely never know whether the Supreme Court nominee is a sexual assaulter. But it really doesn’t matter.

The fact that American officials talked with Venezuelans plotting a coup against the government of their country is a dangerous turn of events.

Donald Trump is a bad, inept, and potentially dangerous President. That doesn’t mean that a ‘soft coup’ inside the White House is the answer to the problem he presents to our democratic republic.

A Georgia County is abandoning a dubious plan that would have closed 2/3 of the county’s polling stations.

There’s a reason President Trump’s Supreme Court picks are “normal” in a way his national security and economic teams are not.

America promised immigrants who volunteered to serve in our military a fast track to citizenship. Now, we’re throwing them out.

Yes, it’s still okay to celebrate America.

There is a frustration and a growing sense that the American political system is illegitimate.

Maine voters head to the polls today to pick nominees for Governor and several other offices, but the most interesting thing is way they’ll be voting.

It may be my favorite Star Wars film since ‘Empire Strikes Back.’

The United States is apparently looking to Libya as a guide for upcoming talks with North Korea. The DPRK most likely sees the fate of that nation and its leader as a warning.

The Kim regime has announced the end, for now, of its nuclear and ballistic missile testing programs. To understand why they made this concession, one needs to read between the lines.

The Editorial Board of the Newspaper of Record urges Congressional Republicans to steady themselves for a constitutional crisis.

While the nature of Rex Tillerson’s firing as Secretary of State was shocking in its abruptness, taken in context with the rocky nature of his tenure it was hardly surprising.

Yesterday marked fifteen years since I launched Outside the Beltway on the old Blogspot service. 

A Federal Court in North Carolina has issued a stinging ruling against the partisan gerrymandering undertaken by the Republican legislature in that state.

After nearly twenty years, the Republican domination of the Virginia House of Delegates came to an end thanks to a single vote.

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a second case dealing with political Gerrymandering.

A Fox News host has debunked the Uranium One conspiracy theory being pushed by his own network.

Roy Moore’s most die-hard defenders are living in a world of their own, and it’s unlikely they’ll change their minds.

A complicated concurrence to Steven Taylor’s recent postings.

The ‘No Labels’ movement is back, and it’s as irrelevant to contemporary politics as ever.

Democrats and “Never Trump”ers shouldn’t count their chickens before they’re hatched.

The revelations about Donald Trump Jr.’s June 2016 meeting with someone represented as being a Russian government official just keep getting worse.