All Politics Voices

There is nothing hindering Republicans from pursuing a response to Obama’s executive order. But they need non-filibusterable, must-pass legislation as leverage to force the president to accept their terms.

Minority communities  have legitimate concerns about how they are being treated by police, and the president deserves credit for trying to draw our attention to them yet again. 

The reality is that presidents increasingly rely on their core political supporters located in the White House office over the input from their Cabinet secretaries. The next Defense secretary will be Obama's No. 4.

Why is 'Grubered' a new favorite buzzword for conservatives? Jonathan Gruber's video remarks appear to signal that Democrats knew that President Obama's signature health-care law was terrible all along.

Why did Rep. Nancy Pelosi not face a stronger challenge for House minority leader after her party did so poorly in the midterm elections? Because she has a thankless job.

The Founders imagined Congress as a place were legislators could assemble and collectively shape the bills that would become law. That's not happening anymore. A few powerful people control the process.

What do politicians mean when they say 'elections have consequences'? Often, they're saying that their party just won an election and they want their way – but the pronouncement can come back to bite.

Did the Office of Legal Counsel tell the president Wednesday he couldn’t do what he did on Thursday? That question hangs over Obama's executive action.

A new poll suggests that a plurality of Americans want President Obama to wait at least until next year before taking unilateral executive action on immigration.

House Republicans don't want committee chairs bothered by the pursuit of higher office. But Paul Ryan wants to be chairman of perhaps the most important House committee – and perhaps run for president.

One way to address the threat of a hostile reaction to a likely decision not to indict the white police officer that shot an unarmed black teen devolving into another round of violent protests would be to open up the process as soon as possible. 

Democrats failed to convince their own partisans that the economy was, in fact, performing well. Democrats’ attempts to localize their races and distance themselves from the president also put distance between them and a solid national economy.

Any move to defund Obama's executive order will fail in the Senate or produce a government shutdown that will be taken as a sign that Republicans can't govern. So, file a lawsuit, be smart, and win in 2016.

If one were to isolate one primary reason for why Obama's governing majorities dissipated so quickly, it is probably the president's decision to pursue health-care reform, despite strong Republican opposition and lukewarm public support. 

Republicans could follow Ted Cruz's advice and respond to any presidential exercise of executive action by blocking spending bills, likely precipitating a government shutdown, if the White House does not back down. 

Political history favors Republicans. Demographic change favors Democrats. But the economy and election-shaping surprises – such as the Iranian hostage crisis or Hurricane Katrina – could have more to do with the outcome in 2016.

The phrase dates back to 1895, when writer Finley Peter Dunne used it as a quote from his fictional character Mr. Dooley, an Irishman who pontificated on the day’s issues from a Chicago pub. Pundits and politicians keep it alive because it still fits the times.

Mark Warner, the most popular politician in the state, with a big lead in the polls, wound up in a nail biter in Virginia's US Senate race, and turnout doesn't account for all of it.

Having control of both houses of Congress will only exacerbate and highlight the internal fractures within the Republican Party, some say. Hardly. A win is a win.

There are very few American presidents who can say that they fell victim to two wave elections in the course of their presidencies, and, make no doubt about it, this was a wave election.