Abbreviated pundit round-up: Guns, immigration and women in combat

Paul Krugman at The New York Times explains that Republican leaders are Friends of Fraud:

So the consumer protection bureau serves a vital function. But as I said, Senate Republicans are trying to kill it. [...]

What Republicans are demanding, basically, is that the protection bureau lose its independence. They want its actions subjected to a veto by other, bank-centered financial regulators, ensuring that consumers will once again be neglected, and they also want to take away its guaranteed funding, opening it to interest-group pressure. These changes would make the agency more or less worthless ' but that, of course, is the point.

(Eleven more opinions from pundits and editorial boards can be found below the fold...)