THE HILL: Controversies threaten President Obama’s second-term agenda.

The testy press conference entrenched concerns at the White House and among its allies that the controversies could overwhelm Obama’s agenda.

“We now have focused the attention of everyone, including all of you, on the lengths to which the administration’s willing to go to quiet the voices of its critics,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Tuesday at a press briefing that addressed none of Obama’s legislative priorities.

The scandals also risk reinforcing and worsening some of the biggest criticisms of the president: that he is arrogant, secretive and interested in bending his political opponents to his will rather than in working with them.

Well, since those criticisms are demonstrably correct, yeah, that’s a problem.