Ron Elving

Over the weekend, White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough was asked on NBC's Meet the Press what victory would look like in the new struggle against Islamist extremists in Iraq.

"Success looks like an ISIL that no longer threatens our friends in the region, that no longer threatens the ...

After a decade in national politics as a dove, Barack Obama has become a reluctant hawk.

Obama's long transformation reached its endpoint on the eve of the 13th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. But it came, in the end, because Americans suddenly felt a renewed sense of peril from ...

Tanned and rested after a five-week summer vacation, Congress has returned for a brief session before returning home to campaign for re-election. This autumn session is expected to last a couple of weeks, give or take a couple of days.

What can be accomplished in so short a time? A ...

Congress was back in town on Monday for a two-week sprint before the midterm elections. On the schedule: pass a budget bill so the government doesn't shut down again, decide the fate ...

With the stunning conviction of former Virginia GOP Gov. Bob McDonnell and his wife on corruption charges, people are once again posing that age old question: Why do so many politicians get into trouble with the law?

The list of reasons comes as a shock because it's so short. The ...

A group that tracks violence against children is reporting "grave violations" in Nigeria's fragile northeast. Violence there is getting worse, the group says, despite a state of emerg...

Former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell has been found guilty on all 11 public corruption charges that he faced. His wife, Maureen, was convicted of eight of those same charges, as well as...

Sen. Lamar Alexander easily dispatched rival Republican Joe Carr in the Tennessee primary Thursday, completing a clean sweep for this year's Senate incumbents who faced intraparty challengers claiming the Tea Party label.

Yet while they were winless, the hard-core conservatives intent on selecting a Senate more to their liking this ...

House GOP leaders have abruptly canceled a vote on their own bill meant to address the surge of unaccompanied minors at the Mexican border. An effort to pass a pared down version of ...

Congress has a number of big pieces of legislation to deal with before leaving on its annual summer recess. The Highway Trust Fund, border security and the VA are all on the to-do list.

Sen. John Walsh of Montana was appointed to his seat, and he's preparing to face voters for the first time. The Democrat's bid will be complicated by plagiarism allegations.

It's nice to see Sarah Palin back in the news. Nice, that is, if you're a Sarah fan — or if you're a Democrat, or a member of the media.

Palin's fans, and they are legion on the right, love her reliably tough-talking take on how conservatives should fight President ...

The next Republican nominated for president will take the stage and wave to the crowd in ... wait for it ... Cleveland, Ohio.

That may shock you for any number of reasons, not least being that hardly anyone remembers the last time Cleveland hosted a national convention.

In fact, it ...

For the next couple of weeks, I'm out in California covering the Television Critics Association press tour. Not familiar? Here's an introduction.

Day 1 of summer press tour began with hammering and ended with a giant Christmas tree.

Let's back up.

We started Tuesday with a presentation from ...

Howard Baker, who died Thursday at age 88, was a former Senate majority leader and chief of staff to President Reagan. Both his father and stepmother served in Congress; one of the Senate's office buildings is named for Baker's father-in-law, Everett Dirksen.

When he retired, Baker took up residence ...

Crumple up that first draft. Hit delete on the keyboard. The take most of us had on Tuesday's primaries just one day ago turned out to be just one more misread in the primaries of 2014.

That story about the passing of the Old Guard? Or the one about the ...

Tuesday featured an extensive slew of primaries across the U.S. To learn more about the results, and what they mean for the midterm elections, Audie Cornish turns to NPR's Ron Elving for more.

The House Republican Conference on Thursday will chose a new majority leader, who will succeed Eric Cantor at the end of the month. Cantor is stepping down after losing last week's primary.

That shape-shifting spirit we call the Tea Party assumed yet a new form Tuesday and took down its most prominent victim of this year, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor. In some ways, Cantor is the most significant Republican incumbent ousted in a primary since the latest intraparty rebellion by conservative ...

Commentator Frank Deford compares FIFA, the organization that puts on soccer's World Cup, with the International Olympic Committee — and finds both lacking.