Wikimedia Commons

“Thursday brought another WikiLeaks dump of nearly 2,000 emails hacked from the Hillary Clinton campaign, allegedly by Russians. As usual, they were inside-the-beltway gossip rather than game-changing.” So The Guardian reported earlier this week. What does “beltway gossip” mean?

Beltway is an American word for ring-road — specifically the big one that often surrounds a major city or urban area. Used in a political sense it refers to business or activities taking place within the confines of the I-495 highway surrounding Washington DC. So a “beltway issue” is a matter of concern or importance only to Washington insiders — those cogs in the political machine — and not to the general voting public.

***