blogging the beltway

Illinois was the only state to cast its votes in the Republican presidential primary on Tuesday, but the political watching didn’t end there. Further down the ballot, the state also voted in a host of hotly contested congressional races, including a high-profile challenge between incumbent Jesse Jackson Jr. and former U.S. Rep. Debbie Halvorson. On…

Historically, the Violence Against Women Act has been an uncontroversial, bipartisan bill reauthorized by Congress as a matter of routine. Passed in 1994, the act created training grants and programs to help investigate and prosecute violent crimes against women. It also increased funding for direct services for victims of domestic violence, such as emergency shelter,…

Actor George Clooney — along with NAACP President Ben Jealous, U.S. Reps. Jim Moran (D-Va.) and Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), actor and activist Dick Gregory and Martin Luther King III — were arrested on Friday during a protest at the Sudanese Embassy in Washington, D.C. They were released the same afternoon. Joining in on the National…

Hours before Wednesday evening’s state dinner in honor of British Prime Minister David Cameron and Mrs. Samantha Cameron, first lady Michelle Obama hosted a smaller White House event for high school girls from the United States and the United Kingdom, explaining the importance of the official visit. The lucky teens were also treated to a…

Bragging rights go to Rick Santorum, the big winner in the Alabama and Mississippi primaries on Tuesday. His victories in the deep red Southern states, where a combined average of 40 percent of primary voters described themselves as “very conservative,” came with 35 percent and 33 percent of the votes respectively at the times the…

Sure, there are actually four contests taking place today — in Alabama, Mississippi, Hawaii and American Samoa. But in terms of the ones to watch, it’s all about the South. Here’s what I’ll be looking for as the results roll in tonight. Can Romney Overcome His “Southern Problem”? Nobody ever gives Mitt Romney credit for…

President Obama, for one, is encouraged by the latest economic numbers. Employers added 227,000 jobs in February — the third straight month in which more than 200,000 jobs were added to the economy — keeping the unemployment rate steady at 8.3 percent. Another good sign in the new Labor Department report was an uptick in…

On Wednesday the National Urban League released its yearly analysis of the socioeconomic status of African Americans, The State of Black America report. And although the Occupy Wall Street movement, in addition to the White House, has emphasized the widening wealth gap and shrinking middle class as being the make-or-break issues for the nation this…

In advance of Super Tuesday, Mitt Romney was widely expected to solidify his standing as the front-runner by the time it was all over. But in this truly unpredictable primary season, that’s not quite what happened. Check out the results in all 10 states here, but here’s a closer look at the results from two…

In a news conference — scheduled at a time that conveniently put him at the center of attention as his Republican opponents duke it out on Super Tuesday — President Obama fielded questions on Iran, Israel, contraception and the GOP race. Here’s our look at some of what he had to say. Still More Mortgage…