G.O.P. Senators and Bush Reach Wiretap Accord  —  WASHINGTON, March 7 — Moving to tamp down Democratic calls for an investigation of the administration's domestic eavesdropping program, Republicans on the Senate Intelligence Committee said Tuesday that they had reached agreement with the White House …

Presenter: Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld and Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Peter Pace  —  DoD News Briefing with Secretary Rumsfeld and Gen. Pace  —  SEC. RUMSFELD: Come on in, folks.  Good morning.  —  Last week I had the privilege of visiting the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library …

Congress Votes to Renew Patriot Act, With Changes  —  Congress voted yesterday to renew a four-year-old anti-terrorism law that makes it easier for federal agents to secretly obtain Americans' records and communications, even as some lawmakers warned that voters are growing increasingly concerned …

Professors of Pretense  —  The institutional vanity and intellectual slovenliness of America's campus-based intelligentsia have made academia more peripheral to civic life than at any time since the 19th century.  On Monday its place at the periphery was underscored as the Supreme Court …

Democrats' Data Mining Stirs an Intraparty Battle  —  With Private Effort on Voter Information, Ickes and Soros Challenge Dean and DNC  —  A group of well-connected Democrats led by a former top aide to Bill Clinton is raising millions of dollars to start a private firm that plans …

Cheney: Iran Faces 'Meaningful Consequences' if It Doesn't Curb Nuclear Program  —  Vice President Cheney threatened Iran today with "meaningful consequences" if it fails to cooperate with international efforts to curb its nuclear program.  —  "For our part, the United States is keeping …

House Agrees To Vote On Ports  —  Efforts by the White House to hold off legislation challenging a Dubai-owned company's acquisition of operations at six major U.S. ports collapsed yesterday when House Republican leaders agreed to allow a vote next week that could kill the deal.

Missed Tributes  —  Now for a few humble thoughts about the Oscars.  —  I did not see every second of it, but my wife did, and she joins me in noting that there was not one word of tribute, not one breath, to our fighting men and women in Iraq and Afghanistan or to their families or their widows or orphans.

8,000 desert during Iraq war  —  At least 8,000 members of the all-volunteer U.S. military have deserted since the Iraq war began, Pentagon records show, although the overall desertion rate has plunged since the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001.  —  Since fall 2003, 4,387 Army soldiers …

Opponents of DeLay Make Use of a Film  —  LOS ANGELES, March 6 — A documentary about the Texas criminal investigation that led to the indictment of Representative Tom DeLay, the former House majority leader, on campaign fund-raising charges is being put to use by Mr. DeLay's political opponents in an attempt to unseat him.

Second Texas Primary Results Thread  —  Most Recent Updates At The Top  — It's over.  The early voting totals were terrible.  Cuellar pulled 12,772 (57.98%) of the early vote.  Ciro got 7,579 (34.40%), and Morales got 1,678 (7.62%).  This thing was lost before today even began.

Getting A Clue-ney: Race & The Oscars  —  My post-Oscar update (#6) on George Clooney (see below) garnered a strong comment from "Cal." I thought I would put his statement and my response as a post, with some other views on the Oscars, race and the rise of Three Six Mafia.  —  First Cal, who starts quoting me:

At Conservative Forum on Bush, Everybody's a Critic  —  If the ancient political wisdom is correct that a charge unanswered is a charge agreed to, the Bush White House pleaded guilty yesterday at the Cato Institute to some extraordinary allegations.  —  "We did ask a few members …