Columns

Milbank: Civil liberties under assault by Obama administration

There are various reasons you might not care about the Obama administration's spying on journalist James Rosen and labeling him an "aider and abettor and/or co-conspirator" in an espionage case. Liberals may not be particularly bothered because the targeted journalist works for Fox News. Conservatives may not be concerned because of their antipathy toward the news media generally. And the general public certainly doesn't have much patience for journalists' whining.

Robinson: Republicans try to turn Benghazi tragedy into scandal

Those who are trying to make the Benghazi tragedy into a scandal for the Obama administration really ought to decide what story line they want to sell.

Ambrose: Obama administration swimming in major scandals

Please, please, there's no reason to impeach President Barack Obama, and it is overreach to say we're getting Watergate all over again. But the scandals are indeed piling up on each other, or, to use another metaphor, it's not just raining. It's pouring. And the message to the nation is to take cover.

Callaghan: 'Real' unemployment rate used for political arguments

It's sometimes called the "real" unemployment rate and it's always the number preferred by out-of-power politicians who use it as proof that the economy isn't as good as the incumbent president or governor says it is.

Sowell: Undo 'brainwashing' by making students hit the books

This time of year, as college students return home for the summer, many parents may notice how many politically correct ideas they have acquired on campus. Some of those parents may wonder how they can undo some of the brainwashing that has become so common in what are supposed to be institutions of higher learning.

Pitts: Even Tea Party foes should worry about IRS practice

Well, this is a fine mess.

Will: Visions of Watergate

"He has, acting personally and through his subordinates and agents, endeavored to … cause, in violation of the constitutional rights of citizens, income tax audits or other income tax investigations to be initiated or conducted in a discriminatory manner."-- Article 2, Section 1, Articles of Impeachment

Controversy over coal exports stirs up debate

Arguments for, against terminals are presented

John Laird: Geezers, grouches, gay marriage and going in circles

Notes, quotes and anecdotes while wondering how Don Benton plans to pay for and build a bistate third bridge without the other state's permission:

Milbank: Recusal no excuse for undermining of Constitution

As the nation's top law enforcement official, Eric Holder is privy to all kinds of sensitive information. But he seems to be proud of how little he knows. Why didn't his Justice Department inform The Associated Press, as the law requires, before pawing through reporters' phone records? "I do not know," the attorney general told the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, "why that was or was not done. I simply don't have a factual basis to answer that question."

Parker: IRS, AP scandals unite conservatives and the media

Conservative organizations suddenly have found common cause with one of their favorite objects of contempt -- the Mainstream Media. In a twist of irony, the two groups have coalesced around a common enemy: the U.S. government.

Marcus: IRS scandal overshadows another failure by agency

Sputtering adjectives -- outrageous, appalling, intolerable -- can scarcely do justice to the fiasco involving the Internal Revenue Service's reported targeting of conservative groups. But the current scandal obscures -- and, ironically, threatens to prevent action on -- another, equally corrosive failure on the part of the IRS when it comes to scrutinizing political groups.