Scott Rasmussen: A difficult task ahead for Obama

It's impossible to predict the lasting impact of the controversies now besetting the Obama administration, but the risks to the president's agenda are sizable.

Joel Brinkley: Iraq war: Miserable mission failure

Ten years ago this month, President George W. Bush climbed confidently from the cockpit of a fighter jet that had landed on the USS Abraham Lincoln flight deck. He strode to the microphone and declared an end to major military operations in Iraq.

Leonard Pitts Jr.: In Florida, timely injustice

At great political peril, George Ryan did the right thing.

Bill O'Reilly: Mr. President: Why so much stonewalling?

It hasn't been a great week for the Obama folks, as the scandal du jour tour has firmly taken hold. Every day it seems another federal agency is exposed as having intimidated, snooped, covered up or gone to Vegas on the taxpayer dime. Zimbabwe is even making fun of us. On Jan. 21, 2009, in remarks welcoming his new presidential staff, Barack Obama said: "Let me say it as simply as I can: Transparency and the rule of law will be the touchstones of this presidency."

Mona Charen: Obama, his allies flout Constitution

Speaking at Ohio State just a few days before abuse of power and dishonesty scandals swept over his administration, President Obama sang one of his trademark odes to the benevolence of government:

Mark Shields: Second-term pitfalls

Dan Jenkins, a sportswriter of rare wit, once gave us the Ten Stages of Drunkenness, which include these separate points on the road to inebriation: "Witty and Charming," ''Rich and Powerful," ''Clairvoyant," ''Patriotic," followed by "Crank Up the Enola Gay" and culminating in Stage 10, "Bulletproof."

Rachel Marsden: China's low-profile imperialism

PARIS -- Hardly a day goes by without America-bashers accusing the U.S. of "imperialism" or "interventionism." Meanwhile, China is largely exempt from that sort of criticism from the same crowd. If only they'd listen to the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria and a few other stray voices.

Connie Schultz: Fellow journalists: The party's over

Two weeks after the press partied hearty with President Barack Obama at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner, the administration admitted that federal authorities had secretly combed through phone records for dozens of Associated Press journalists.

Robert B. Reich: Family values and the new economy

My mother went into paid work soon after my father's clothing store was flooded out in a hurricane, almost wiping him out. She had no choice. We needed the money.

Obama's Legacy? Scandal

The Obama scandals started piling up on top of each other in the last few days. The civil servants who testified on Benghazi were heartbreaking. Then the IRS admitted a punitive agenda against tax exemptions for groups with "tea party" in the name or groups that "educate about the Constitution."