National columnists

Republican politicians and activists can barely contain their glee at the simultaneous eruption of three major controversies about the Obama administration.

Shortly before World War II, Norman Rockwell painted an image depicting a workingman standing to speak at a government meeting. Surrounded by men in suits, he stood there in a flannel shirt and a laborer’s jacket with an agenda stuck in it’s pocket.

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

Chilling effect. That’s the term lawyers and judges use to describe the result of government actions that deter people from exercising their right of free speech.

Climate change is an issue that needs to be discussed thoughtfully and objectively. Unfortunately, claims that distort the facts hinder the legitimate evaluation of policy options. The rhetoric has driven some policymakers toward costly regulations and policies that will harm hardworking American families and do little to decrease global carbon emissions. The Obama administration’s decision to delay, and possibly deny, the Keystone XL pipeline is a prime example.

For years, conservatives have pushed for a health insurance model emphasizing catastrophic coverage. It works as follows:

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.

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.

It didn’t get a lot of attention. It happened the same day as hearings on the Benghazi attacks and the announcement of a verdict in the Jodi Arias trial. But House Majority Leader Eric Cantor took a modest step forward last week in his plan to broaden the Republican agenda beyond budget cuts.

Remember the scandal of “the 16 words”? If not, the quick version is this: A former ambassador named Joseph C. Wilson IV charged in 2003 that President George W. Bush had included in his State of the Union address a (16-word) allegation about Iraq that his top aides knew to be false – that Saddam Hussein had sought to purchase uranium from Niger.

What were Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton thinking? Why did they keep pitching the line that the Sept. 11, 2012 Benghazi attack that killed Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans started as a spontaneous protest against an anti-Muslim video?

Since the emergence of capitalism, workers seeking higher pay and safer workplaces have banded together in guilds and unions to pressure their employers for a better deal.

The story of three girls grabbed from the streets of Cleveland and caged in their neighborhood for some 10 years demands scrutiny beyond expressions of shock.

Every time there’s a horrendous story about kidnapping or child molestation, America loses another ounce of freedom.

As I write this, not even 48 hours have passed since three young women escaped a decadelong nightmare of captivity in a house in Cleveland.

Rude, entitled, arrogant and off-putting: That’s how the conventionally wise in Washington are characterizing Ted Cruz, the conservative new senator from Texas. It’s a better description of the critics themselves, who are inadvertently helping Cruz build his national fan base.

The Washington Post reports: “Israeli forces have carried out an airstrike against a shipment of sophisticated missiles bound for the Lebanese political and military organization Hezbollah, officials in Washington, Lebanon and Israel told reporters Saturday.

SPRINGFIELD – Who cares what Texas Gov. Rick Perry thinks?

If the state of Texas executes Duane Buck, it’ll be because he is black.

Many loud voices in the debate over immigration have been insisting that effective border enforcement must precede any steps that legalize the status of current illegal immigrants.

We may not have time for exercise, but there’s always time to read about exercising. And while the motivation to exercise may not be tops, the motivation to shop for “aids” to exercise seems forever strong.

Living in the shadows of the ongoing war on terror are 1,715 American military people who lost limbs in Iraq and Afghanistan.

For many years, the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society held an annual fair that sold only goods that weren’t made by slaves.

George W. Bush, who united almost all Republicans during most of his time in national politics, now divides them. Most Republicans view his presidency favorably, and cheer his recent rise in the public’s esteem.

The recent deceleration in U.S. health care costs appears to be at least partially structural, and not entirely because of a lackluster economy. That offers some hope that the slowdown will continue. Still, more needs to be done to encourage the trend.

SPRINGFIELD – Every once in a while someone will ask, “Scott, why are you so critical of Illinois?”

This is for the rest of us.

On Thursday, the George W. Bush Presidential Center was dedicated at Southern Methodist University in Texas. It is a good time to look back on the performance of the 43rd president, who has been almost entirely missing from the public stage these past four years.

We who work through colds, bad backs and low moods – however liberal we might be – have permission to resent those who could hold a job but don’t, preferring to collect disability checks unto the decades.

Shortly after the terror bombings in Boston last week, two different media people made statements that were alarming to say the least.

Last month, after a trial that garnered worldwide coverage, two high-school football players in Steubenville, Ohio, were sentenced to youth prison for raping a 16-year-old girl.

“Amnesty” is the swear word many conservatives apply to the new bipartisan immigration bill. The same invective was used to sink the last major attempt to change American immigration laws, during President George W. Bush’s second term. Some critics say that offering legal status to illegal immigrants is simply wrong in principle.

Rand Paul did just fine at Howard University, thank you very much. Or at least, that’s how he remembers it.