Outside the Beltway

Contrary to the White House’s arguments, negotiating over the debt ceiling is not at all historically unprecedented.

Ted Cruz is holding the Senate floor “until I can no longer speak,” but he still won’t be able to stop the Senate from going forward.

Even before the Russian curve ball, the public opposition to military strikes on Syria was mounting.

Not surprisingly, Congressional leaders on both sides of the aisle are lining up behind the President in the debate over Syria.

Managers want their employees to get off email and pick up the phone.

Walter Russell Mead explains why a well intentioned, carefully crafted and consistently pursued grand strategy failed.

One of the nation’s papers of record is changing owners for the first time in 80 years.

The government contractor that conducted Edward Snowden’s background investigation faces criminal indictment.

Bradley Manning was acquitted of the most serious charge against him, but is still likely to spend most of his life in prison.

Americans tell pollsters that hate Congress, but they never seem to do anything about it.

The return of a really bad idea.

Edward Snowden has likely violated many laws, but, absent additional facts, treason is not one of them.

Opponents of immigration reform are using “border security” as a shield to hide their true desire to kill the very idea of immigration reform.

The U.S. is now confirming that the Syrian government has used chemical weapons. What’s next?

At what point do science and magic converge? And what are the potential costs?

Sadly, this is not surprising.

The government is changing the way it calculates Gross Domestic Product.

Mitt Romney returns from the political graveyard.

Filling normal vacancies on the bench is not “packing the court.”

Partisan targeting by the IRS should not be permitted to stand.

John McCain is taking a break from advocating yet another war in the Middle East to make war against cable television companies.

The Senate moved last night to end the airport delays caused by furloughing air traffic controllers.

The days of tax-free online shopping are coming to an end.

The man who changed the way Americans viewed newspapers, just before newspapers themselves began getting pushed aside by technology, has died at the age of 89.

A sensational story, little solid information, and instant analysis are a bad combination

Most of us suck at driving. Soon, we won’t be allowed to drive.

There’s a lot we still don’t know about what happened in Boston, so maybe it’s time to stop speculating.

Tragedy in Boston.

The Senate looks like it’s about ready to take up a bipartisan immigration reform package.

The economy has been steadily recovering from the Great Recession. But the jobs may never come back.

The Iraq War did significant damage to the legacy of the Republican Party.

Walter Russell Mead presents his sitrep of the War on Terror.

The gambling mogul is self-reporting violations of the law against bribing foreign officials.

Separate, it turns out, is not equal.

The GOP’s public image continues to be bad and there seems to be little sign that they’re doing anything to change that.

There’s an innocent explanation for giving a huge bonus to a financial exec going into government. And it still stinks.