With a tie-breaking vote cast by Vice President Mike Pence, the Senate confirmed longtime religious-right figurehead and outgoing (and unpopular) Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback to be the US’s ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom on Wednesday. The outgoing governor’s association with Barton is longstanding. Brownback has frequently referred to Barton as “one of my big heroes” for his preservation

Januaries tend to bring a spate of bad legislation. Election years are worse than others. This year, there’s a flood—and in one sense it is indeed biblical—of bad bills. This cyclical inundation is not because legislators expect or even desire much of the legislation to move. Instead, legislators are trying to shore up their base