The campaign manager and communications director for the Ben Carson campaign have resigned, after Carson sort of promised to fire them, and then didn’t, earlier this month.

·The GOP establishment will probably learn to love Ted Cruz, a man every Republican in Washington currently hates, when and if they determine that they have no other options. (Marco Rubio isn’t just stagnant, but actually falling in recent national polls.) But they’ll fight him until they are absolutely sure they’re…

Is Senator Marco Rubio running for president? Is that a stupid question? After all, there he was on stage last week in Las Vegas, speaking more than any candidate besides Cruz (he beat Trump!). He was, according to FiveThirtyEight, the most-attacked Republican candidate, too, which usually indicates frontrunner…

If Jeb Bush became a Democrat, I’m not saying he’d win the nomination, let alone the presidency, but he’d have a better shot at either than he currently does in the Republican Party.

Kevin McCarthy, a Republican from California, is the current majority leader in the House, and was the heavy favorite to replace the departing John Boehner as Speaker. That was, at least, until he suddenly removed his name from consideration today, leaving fellow Republicans on Capitol Hill in “chaos” and “tears.”

Kevin McCarthy, who up until a few hours ago had been the clear frontrunner, has pulled out of the race to replace the retiring John Boehner as Speaker of the House. And now, Congress has descended into hell’s most tearful, mind-numbing pit of fiery chaos. [Updated]

We can apparently credit Pope Francis for at least one good deed on his American tour: He has ended the suffering of an unhappy man. The miserable speakership of John Boehner is over.

If you watched tonight’s GOP debate, you probably didn’t learn anything important, but you definitely now know that a lot of people want to be the Republican Party’s nominee for president. Like so many people! So many, in fact, that trying to keep track of them all has become its own grim, profoundly absurd contest.

At 8 p.m. Eastern, the top eleven candidates for the Republican nomination for the presidency will take the stage at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, to embarrass themselves, their loved ones, and the country they hope to lead as they vie for a chance to run this great nation into the…

Donald Trump, the 69-year-old New York real estate mogul and unrepentant bigot, continues to dominate the Republican presidential primary polls. Trump’s sudden ascendance, accelerated by his willingness to insult virtually any ostensible ally within the conservative movement, has left GOP leaders dumbfounded. How did…

The post-debate consensus is in: “Fox News Moderators Bring a Sharpened Edge to the Republican Debate Stage,” raves the Times. They proved the haters wrong!

Over at The New Yorker (dot com), “John McCain has a few things to say about Donald Trump.” And, well, who cares?