blogging the beltway

The Republican primaries have been all about Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich for weeks now, but Tuesday’s contests in Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri gave Rick Santorum a big chance to shine. Santorum won all three contests. While the races were nonbinding, with delegates to be allocated later at district and state conventions (and in the…

Nestled in last week’s jobs report showing that the unemployment rate dropped to 8.3 percent in January (and fell from 15.8 to 13.6 percent for African Americans), there was also hopeful news for veterans. As Think Progress reports, in the past year the unemployment rate for veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars fell 6…

There was no suspense leading up to the Nevada Republican caucus results. As expected, Mitt Romney won in the state (which he also won in 2008, and which has a significant population of fellow Mormons) with a commanding lead. Newt Gingrich came in second, followed by Ron Paul and Rick Santorum. Romney’s second consecutive victory…

On Saturday the Republican presidential race moves on to the Nevada caucuses. According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal poll, Mitt Romney is “headed for a blowout victory” in the state, leading Newt Gingrich by 20 points among likely caucus-goers. After his wide margin of victory last month in Florida, some pundits have all but declared…

The past few months have been bustling for U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk. Last October Congress passed free-trade agreements with South Korea, Colombia and Panama, the first to pass since 2007. And in this year’s State of the Union address, President Obama put “places like China” on notice for blocking American exports and announced the…

On Monday, President Obama took interview questions through a virtual “Hangout” on the social networking site Google+. According to Google, 1.6 million votes were cast on 133,000 questions submitted last week by YouTube users. The president tackled some of the highest-rated questions, with five selected participants on Google+ engaging with him live, and the other…

As political watchers fix their eyes on the Republican primary in Florida this week, there’s a longer-term issue that will affect voters in several states come November: photo-ID laws. While arguments about the disparate impact of these new laws are usually couched in lawsuits and research studies, some activists are pushing beyond identifying the problem…

As political watchers fix their eyes on the Republican primary election in Florida this week, there’s a longer-term issue that will affect voters in several other states come November: photo ID laws. While arguments about the disparate impact of these new laws are usually couched in lawsuits and research studies, some activists are pushing beyond…

In the crucial final debate before Tuesday’s Florida Republican primary, the candidates faced off at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville. Moderated by CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, conversation ranged from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to building colonies on the moon (yes, this was discussed for, like, 15 minutes) to whose wife would make the best first…

With all the focus on the presidential election, we sometimes lose sight of the fact that this is an election year for members of Congress, too. And the congressional contest is no mere side attraction — the political steam of whoever is in the White House all comes down to which party holds the reins…