Outside the Beltway

As the government shutdown continues, Washington is coming to resemble a fight between toddlers. Except the toddlers have the excuse of not knowing any better.

Despite their rhetoric, Republicans in Congress have shown through their own inaction that they don’t really support the President’s border wall.

After twenty-five days, there’s no end in sight to the Federal Government shutdown. You can thank the President for that.

Former HUD Secretary Julian Castro is the latest addition to the growing Democratic Presidential field.

Border states/districts are not as pro-wall as presidential rhetoric might make you think.

If you’re looking for the biggest obstacle to a resolution to the government shutdown, look no further than President Donald J. Trump.

President Trump appears to be backing away from the idea of declaring a national emergency to get his wall built. But the other options he’s considering aren’t much better.

The government shutdown has now entered historic territory, and the Trump Administration is moving closer to a “national emergency” or other extra-legal means to get money for his wall.

Iowa’s Steve King has long expressed anti-immigrant and racist views, now he’s asking why that’s a bad thing.

New polling clearly indicates that the President is losing the battle for public opinion over the government shutdown.

President Trump’s speech on the border wall and the shutdown was fact-free, misleading, and overall a bomb.

Bernie Sanders is facing questions about sexual harassment from women who worked on his 2016 campaign as he prepares a likely run for President in 2020.

With Pat Roberts retiring, Kansas Republicans are reportedly looking at Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to succeed him.

Herb Kelleher, who helped found an airline that revolutionized the industry thanks to his unconventional choices, has died at the age of 87.

California is set up throw a huge curve ball into the 2020 Presidential nomination fight.

My mother has passed, aged 75 years.

The numbers should guide policy, not silly symbols.

The Senate passed a bill that keeps the government funded through the beginning of February, but fails to provide any funding for the President’s border wall.

The Senate overwhelmingly passed major reforms in Federal sentencing and related laws. As the name of the bill implies, it’s a first step, but a good first step.

With the Friday night deadline fast approaching, nobody in Washington seems to know what’s going on.

Republicans scored a win in Court last week, but it seems likely to lead to a political loss in the long-term.

Former Vice-President Biden and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders are, not surprisingly, leading the early polls for the 2020 Democratic nomination.

Eight years after it was signed into law, a Federal Judge has ruled the Affordable Care Act to be unconstitutional.

U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor contends that a recent change in tax law unravels the basis for the Supreme Court’s upholding of Obamacare.

Gerrymandering. It’s not just for Republicans.

Senator Mitch McConnell and others are blocking a criminal justice reform bill currently pending in the Senate.

William Barr, who served as Attorney General under President George H.W. Bush, has been selected to replace Jeff Sessions as Attorney General.

The economy is in good shape for the moment but there are storm clouds on the horizon.

Honoring the 41st President cast a poor light on the 45th.

Washington said farewell to George H.W. Bush today in a service that both remembered his spirit and his heroism, and stands as a sharp rebuke to what politics has been reduced to in America today.

A nation says farewell to a war hero, public servant, former President, and great American.

Bernie Sanders has not officially said that he’s running for President, but he’s reportedly planning a much more aggressive campaign than what we saw in 2016 if he does.

Later this week, the Supreme Court will hear a case that could rewrite decades of law interpreting the Fifth Amendment’s Double Jeopardy rule.

The 2020 campaign is already heating up, and California Senator Kamala Harris could be one of the first serious candidates for President to throw her hat in the ring.

Former Dallas police office Amber Guyger has been charged with murder in connection with the September shooting of Botham Jean in his own apartment.

After initially saying no, Texas Congressman Beto O’Rourke is now reopening the door to the idea of running for President.

In the end, the race between Cindy Hyde-Smith and Mike Espy was not even close.

Even as its leader continues to deny the reality of Global Climate Change, the Trump Administration has released an utterly devastating report on the impact of such change over the course of the coming decades.

Preliminary figures indicate that voter turnout in the 2018 midterms was higher than it has been for any midterm election in fifty-two years.

Republican Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith has made several mistakes since Election Day, but she’s likely to win tomorrow’s runoff election.

Some examples from 2018 of the problems with single seat districts.

A Mississippi law that seeks to ban most abortions after 15 weeks was struck down by a Federal District Court Judge.

President Trump’s latest attack on the Federal Judiciary prompted a rare rebuke from the Chief Justice of the United States.

Is Donald Trump thinking about dumping Mike Pence in 2020? Probably not, but that’s not going to stop the speculation.

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

Former HUD Secretary Julián Castro is preparing a run for the White House in 2020.

The next head to roll in the Trump Administration appears to be frequent Trump target DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen.

Democrats have flipped the Senate seat currently held by Republican Jeff Flake.

Late last week, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals became the fifth Federal Court to rule against the Trump Administration’s efforts to repeal DACA.

One hundred years after the end of World War One, the forces that led to it are waking up from a long slumber.