Hans von Spakovsky

(Newser) - Controversial civil-rights lawyer Hans von Spakovsky, who last week withdrew from consideration for appointment to the Federal Election Commission, pens a post-mortem of his own candidacy in the Wall Street Journal. Asserting that “character assassination … has become the norm” for conservatives in confirmation battles, von Spakovsky says calling...

(Newser) - President Bush’s latest maneuvering with the Federal Election Commission does nothing to fix the standoff over unacceptable nominees, New York Times editors argue. Instead, the White House has made it worse, moving to can the chairman who questioned John McCain’s “funding machinations”—and sub in a...

(Newser) - Democrats in Congress are keeping a watchful eye on President Bush and preventing him from making any appointments during the monthlong holiday recess. The strategy requires the Senate to be in session every couple of days—even if only for a few seconds. On Friday, the Politico reports, the Senate...