Outside the Beltway

Like clockwork, the arguments for creation of a third party are popping up again.

President Obama would like to sell you something.

Support for interracial marriage is now almost universal across America.

It never ceases to amaze me how many smart people manage to believe, against all evidence to the contrary, that their political philosophy has massive support.

That a popular two-term governor of Utah is being rejected by likely Republican primary voters as insufficiently conservative shows just how extreme American politics has gotten.

Jon Huntsman is not going to be the Republican nominee in 2012, but he seems ready to carve out a niche for himself.

Last night’s debate was definitely more combative than previous renditions.

What you think you know about the U.S.-China trade relationship may not be entirely true.

Congress is failing to complete even simple tasks thanks to a bitter partisan divide.

On paper, the U.S. lost $1.3 billion on the Chrysler bankruptcy, but the true cost is far higher than that.

Are the new crop of GOP governors too conservative?

Workers picketing a Chicago Hyatt hotel yesterday got an unpleasant surprise: Heat lamps.

Senator Al Franken called Focus on the Family’s Tom Minnery a liar in yesterday’s hearing on DOMA. Franken was the one being dishonest.

It won’t go anywhere this year, but after 15 years someone is finally trying to repeal a bad law.

The star of a controversial reality show about polygamy is suing to have Utah’s law that makes his living arrangement illegal struck down.

The Stephen Colbert Super PAC that began as a satire has now been blessed by the real FEC. What exactly this means is not yet clear.

Not exactly an example of moral leadership.

Another major campaign finance case from the Supreme Court.

The passage of a new same-sex marriage law has Democrats talking about Andrew Cuomo.

A victory for marriage equality in the Empire State.

President Obama came close to endorsing same-sex marriage last night, but stopped short yet again

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

A very provocative decision on same-sex marriage from an unlikely source.

Business Week’s cover story examines the coming implosion of the US Postal Service as we know it.

Fox News chairman Roger Ailes has come to regret the direction he took the network after the 2008 election.

The Navy is considering allowing its chaplains to perform same-sex marriages once “Dont ask, Don’t tell” ends.

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

Whenever I despair at the current state of the Republican Party, I remind myself that things aren’t much better across the aisle.

Is asking to see a professor’s e-mails a legitimate open records request or is it an attempt at silencing a critic?

Regardless of one’s preferences in terms of endgame in Wisconsin, democracy will win out.

This video “Teachers Unions Explained” isn’t particularly fair but it’s nonetheless amusing.

Recent events in Wiscosin seem to undercut the hypothesis that public sector unions have undue political influence.

Wisconsin Republicans stripped state employees of collective bargaining rights without the Democratic senators who fled the state to prevent a quorum.

The Democrats appear ready to come home (or, as per the update, maybe not).

Two new polls reflect the extent to which public attitudes on same-sex marriage have changed dramatically over the past twenty years, and it’s only a matter of time before that’s reflected in the law.

As the standoff in Wisconsin drags on, there is no sign that the public accepts the argument being made about public sector unions by Governor Scott Walker and other Republicans.

At what point does the legitimate right to demonstrate cross the line into infringing on the rights of others?

Why can’t the Wisconsin Stand-off end in compromise?