The Senate last night confirmed five new commissioners for the Federal Elections Commission under the terms of a deal reached with the Bush Administration to end a six-month long stalemate that had prevented the elections watchdog from issuing rulings and enforcing election laws. Democratic Senators refused to confirm a Bush nominee, Hans von Spakovsky, a former Justice Department official in the Voting Section of the Civil Rights Division, over his advocacy for policies that the Democrats considered to be discriminatory. Von Spakovsky withdrew his name soon after the deal was struck between the Administration and Senate negotiators, paving the way for last night's confirmations.

The FEC has been unable to operate since October 2007 due in part to a hold placed on von Spakovsky's nomination by Sen. Barack Obama. Obama placed the hold out of concern over certain decisions made by the Voting Section during von Spakovsky's tenure, specifically the Justice Department's defense of a Georgia voter identification law and a Texas redistricting plan, both of which were later upheld by federal courts. In retaliation for Obama's hold, Republican Senators placed holds of their own on three other nominees to the commission, leaving only two confirmed commissioners, not enough for the Commission to reach a quorum, hold a meeting, or issue a ruling.

With its new commissioners in place, the FEC will now be able distribute federal campaign funding to Sen. John McCain, Sen. Obama has reversed an earlier pledge to accept federal campaign financing, and rule on an outstanding Democratic Party challenge to McCain's decision to opt out of federal financing for the primary campaign. The new members of the Commission include Cynthia Bauerly, the former legislative director for Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Republicans Caroline Hunter and Donald McGahn, Matthew Petersen, and Steven Walther.

The Protect America Act, passed by Congress last August, temporarily extended the intelligence community's authority to conduct its terrorist surveillance program. The law is set to expire at midnight tonight unless Congress acts. The law has already been extended once, at the end of January for two weeks. But another temporary extension is off the table, thanks to procedural maneuvering by minority Republicans in the House.

The bill is being held up over the issue of immunity for telecommunications companies believed to have assisted the government in setting up the surveillance in the days following the September 11th attacks. The Senate resolved its differences on the issue earlier this week when it passed a permanent extension of the authority on a bipartisan vote of 68-29. But late yesterday, refusing to act on the Senate bill, House Democrats left Washington for a week-long recess.

President Bush made an appearance this morning at the Conservative Political Action Conference. The appearance was noteworthy because it was the president's first speech before the group of influential conservatives during his presidency. The Vice-President has appeared several times at the annual conference, but as yet, the president had not come to explain, defend, or advance Administration policy.

Now, however, in the final year of his presidency, and in the midst of a gloomy election season for conservatives and Republicans, President Bush came to the conference and delivered a speech that was part pep talk, part retrospective. He highlighted his Administration's record on the economy, "moral issues", Iraq, and national security, telling the delegates in each case that his Administration applied conservative principles in the face of criticism, and could now claim success as a result.

Buoyed by the recent Supreme Court decision upholding the Federal partial-birth abortion ban, thousands of protesters gathered on the National Mall in Washington yesterday to mark the 35th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion nationwide. President Bush addressed the marchers, as he has done every year of his presidency. The president did not appear at the protest, but spoke to the protesters by telephone after hosting a group of pro-life leaders in the East Room of the White House.

The president, considered by many to be the most pro-life president in memory, cited recent statistics showing that the number of abortions in the United States is declining and cheered the partial-birth abortion ban. But he told the marchers that there is a long way to go, saying that the same data that showed a decline in abortions also shows that one in five pregnancies in the U.S. still ends in one. "America is better than this," he said.

President Bush and Congressional leaders will meet today to discuss specific proposals for stimulating the U.S. economy. Both the White House and Democrats in Congress are aware of the political risks inherent in moving forward together on an election year stimulus package, but the sense that something needs to be done to boost a flagging economy is driving a new found spirit of bipartisanship on the issue.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi facilitated the meeting when she committed the House to working on the stimulus package last week. Prior to that, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid was reportedly nervous about tackling the issue this year, convinced that minority Republicans in the Senate would be able to force politically difficult votes for Democrats. The White House, after announcing at the beginning of the month that it was holding its own meetings on a stimulus plan, suddenly was unsure of the need for one. But Pelosi's insistence that the House would move on a stimulus has helped bring all sides to the table.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad offered his review of President Bush's nine-day trip to the Middle East on Thursday. He was not impressed.

"President George Bush sent a message to the Iranian people and all the nations worldwide. This message reflects his own conceptions and it is a message of rift, a message of sowing the seeds of division. It is a message of confrontation demeaning the dignity of mankind.

But in further comments, the gadfly president of the Islamic Republic demonstrated a lack of understanding of the American political system when he said, "They are in need of these statements for their presidential race." Of course, President Bush is not running for office, and Ahmadinejad may not be familiar with the concept of free and fair elections.

President Bush signed an exemption from the Coastal Zone Management Act for the U.S. Navy on Tuesday while on the last leg of his Middle East trip. The law is intended to protect marine mammals within the territorial waters of the United States. A Federal judge in Los Angeles issued an injunction earlier this month ordering the Navy to cease the use of sonar in its training exercises within the 12 nautical mile territorial limit and to post lookouts on other training exercises to make sure that marine mammals are not within 2200 yards of an exercise.

Environmental groups were not pleased, saying that mid-range sonar could be harmful to marine mammals. Joel Reynolds, director of the Marine Mammal Protection Project at the Natural Resources Defense Council in Santa Monica said,

The president's action is an attack on the rule of law. By exempting the Navy from basic safeguards under both federal and state law, the president is flouting the will of Congress, the decision of the California Coastal Commission and a ruling by the federal court."

Peter Douglas, the executive director of the California Coastal Commission, one of the groups that filed the lawsuit leading to the injunction, was more blunt. "I'm not surprised at all. It's typical for this Republican administration to ignore environmental protections under the banner of fear," he said.

I was wondering when any of the GOP candidates would hit on this, it seemed to be just awfully low hanging fruit in a primary when any edge could make the difference. Well today Fred hits it, as reported by Redstate:

The Fred Thompson for President, South Carolina bus tour reached Spartanburg today, where the Law & Order TV star candidate fielded questions at Papa's Breakfast Nook from Charlotte, N.C.'s WBT-AM radio talk show host Jeff Katz.

Asked his opinion of the Second Amendment and the Solicitor General's request that the DC Circuit Court remand the appeal back to the trial court for "fact-finding", the lawyer turned Senator from Tennessee said the Bush Administration was "overlawyering" and stated that he opposed remand and that the case should move forward to the U.S. Supreme Court.

And he has it exactly right, which is one of the reasons that despite his current perception, he is the only real conservative in the race, and as such, should have been the one that got the NRO nod instead of recently-saw-the-light Mitt Romney.

Fred's still third back in the pack for South Carolina though, but at least he isn't cracking on confederate flags.

President Bush was welcomed to Israel today with a ceremony at Tel Aviv's airport headed by Israeli President Simon Peres. It was the beginning to a nine-day visit to Israel and the West Bank in an effort by the Administration to build momentum for the nascent final status talks between the Israelis and Palestinians.

The greeting on the tarmac at Tel Aviv was warm and friendly, with Israeli President Peres telling the president, "You are our strongest and most trusted ally in the battle against terrorism and fundamentalism and a strong supporter of our quest for peace and stability." President Bush responded with the hope that his trip will result in a movement for a lasting peace in the Middle East. "We see a new opportunity for peace here in the holy land and for freedom across the region," he said. But in a moment that underscored the delicate nature of the talks, President Bush raised eyebrows when he used one word in connection with the state of Israel. That word was "Jewish."

President Bush embarks on a nine-day trip to the Middle East tonight. The trip is designed to follow up on the Annapolis Conference, at which Israeli and Palestinian negotiators hammered out a framework agreement that included as a goal reaching a final peace settlement by the end of this year. It was the first time the Palestinians and Israelis agreed on a deadline for negotiations.

Now, one day before Bush arrives for his visit, the leaders of Israel and the Palestinian Authority have met and authorized the start of negotiations over "core issues," in the decades long conflict. The core issues are the most divisive and will require the most sacrifice by both sides if a final status agreement is to be reached. The delicate issues include the borders of a future Palestinian state, the fate of Jerusalem, claimed by both as the capital of Israel and Palestine, and the so-called "right of return" of Palestinians displaced by the creation of Israel in 1948.