NATIONAL COLUMNS

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George Will: Time to break up the big banks

With his chronically gravelly voice and relentlessly liberal agenda, Sherrod Brown seems to have stepped out of "Les Miserables," hoarse from singing revolutionary anthems at the barricades. Today, Ohio's senior senator has a project worthy of Victor Hugo -- and of conservatives' support. He wants to break up the biggest banks.

Kathleen Parker: Hillary Clinton and the ghosts of Benghazi

We may never know exactly what happened in Benghazi, Libya, the night Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans were killed, but it's becoming increasingly clear that our response was short of optimal.

Rheta Johnson: Rich moments in my 59th year

PASS CHRISTIAN -- The week I became 60, I was on the Gulf Coast, the weather was balmy and life definitely seemed worth living.

Susan Estrich: Date night

This year, for the State of the Union address, Democrats and Republicans (those who can find "dates," anyway) will be sitting together. It is supposed to be a signal to the nation of bipartisanship -- at least the kind that allows people from opposite parties, as we used to do decades ago, to put their differences aside at the end of the day.

Estrich: The $6 billion scam

While all the figures aren't in and almost certainly never will be, the Center for Responsive Politics has estimated that roughly $6 billion was spent on the 2012 election, including $2 billion on the presidential contest and something on the order of $4 billion on congressional and state races. This gives us, I suppose, the best government money can buy -- which is certainly not the best we could have.

Harrop: Let's stop arguing about birth control

I'm looking forward to the year 2040, because that is when we won't be debating anymore whether birth control belongs in a basic health plan.

Leonard Pitts: Calling out bugnut idiocy

Rush Limbaugh thinks John Lewis should have been armed.

Leonard Pitts: We shouldn't be shocked -- shocked -- over Beyonce-gate

Barack Obama was inaugurated for his second term last week. I mention that only because there's a good chance you missed it. That news, after all, was overshadowed by an apparently more important story out of Washington.

George Will: Recipe for conservative revival

Happy days are not here again, but they are coming for conservatives. Barack Obama -- with the lowest approval rating (according to Gallup, 50 percent, four points lower than that of the National Rifle Association) of any reelected president when inaugurated since World War II -- has a contradictory agenda certain to stimulate a conservative revival.

Kathleen Parker: Combat puts women at unique risk

It must be true what they say about women -- that they are smarter, stronger, wiser and wilier than your average Joe. How else could one explain the magical thinking that apparently has prompted Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to abandon all reason and lift the ban on women in direct combat?

Leonard Pitts: Manti Te'o and looking down at the screen decade

You are missing the point. Or at least, you are if you're one of the bazillion people following the Manti Te'o story, dutifully trying to determine whether the Notre Dame football star was the victim or the perpetrator of a bizarre hoax. Granted, the story is irresistible as one of those 15-minutes-of-fame-kitten-stuck-in-the-well fables without which people who gather around the water cooler wouldn't have anything to talk about.

Susan Estrich: Women in combat

It was in 1981 that the United States Supreme Court, in a decision I still have trouble explaining to my students when I teach it, held that it was constitutional for the Selective Service, acting under the authority of Congress and the president, to require all men -- but not women -- between the ages of 18 and 25 to register for a potential draft.

Froma Harrop: The thinking gets better, second term around

The Obama administration initially billed France about $18 million to cover U.S. military support for its mission in Mali, while Canada offered similar services at no cost. Wall Street Journal columnist Bret Stephens expressed shock at this alleged nickel-and-diming, noting that $18 million is pocket change to a Washington spending over $10 billion a day.

Kathleen Parker: Obama, no patsy now

My inner Pollyanna was basking in blissfulness, rolling in the hay of righteous rhetoric, backstroking through the sunny sibilance of aspiration. Drunk, apparently, on alliteration.

Susan Estrich: I used to love politics

It is hard to remember how much better things are in America today than they were four years ago when Barack Obama took the oath of office for the first time.

Froma Harrop: Aaron Swartz was accused of real crimes

Aaron Swartz: Robin Hood or John Dillinger? He was not as virtuous as Robin and hardly as bad as John. Call the computer genius saint or sinner, few will argue with labeling his suicide at age 26 a "tragic loss."

Susan Estrich: Still hoping

In the days before the re-inauguration of President Obama, there have been the usual curtain raisers, with the usual suspects screaming from their respective corners about the usual stuff. And then there have been interviews with "real" people.

Leonard Pitts: No labels, no excuses

Last week, at a meeting in New York, it was announced that a group of Republican and Democratic lawmakers have agreed to get together once in a while and chat. This made news nationwide. Does that not tell you all you need to know about the sorry state of American politics?

Leonard Pitts: Does torture work?

Does torture work? It is a Bush-era debate that has found Obama-era relevance because of a new movie, "Zero Dark Thirty," in which torture seems to work quite well.

George Will: Some questions for Hagel

Senate hearings on the nomination of Chuck Hagel to be defense secretary will be a distinctive Washington entertainment, a donnybrook without drama. He should be confirmed: Presidents are due substantial deference in selecting Cabinet members because they administer presidential policies and, unlike judicial appointments, they leave when their nominators do.

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