From the White House Briefing Room, a Swan Song  —  President Bush's last press conference opened with cordial words for the reporters who have covered his remarkable eight years in office.  —  Acknowledging that relations have been strained at times - that some had “misunderestimated me …

Continuity We Can Believe In  —  Barack Obama made news Sunday on ABC's “This Week”: The White House dog will likely be a Labradoodle or a Portuguese water dog.  —  I've got to say I'm a little disappointed.  These are nice, friendly, generally obedient breeds (or in the case of the Labradoodle, a crossbreed).

Iran warns Hamas not to accept Egyptian truce proposal  —  Iran is exerting heavy pressure on Hamas not to accept the Egyptian proposal for a cease-fire with Israel, an Egyptian government official said on Sunday.  —  The official told The Jerusalem Post by phone that two senior Iranian officials …

Blagojevich to swear in Senate, then members start his trial  —  A surreal scenario is expected to play out Wednesday in the Illinois Senate: Against a ceremonial backdrop of pomp and circumstance, Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich will preside over the swearing-in of the very same lawmakers whose …

Obama Plans to Keep Estate Tax  —  Democrats Want to Freeze Levy at Current Levels Instead of Letting It Expire Next Year  —  President-elect Barack Obama and congressional leaders plan to move soon to block the estate tax from disappearing in 2010, suggesting the levy might outlive the …

Ideas for Obama  —  Last week President-elect Barack Obama was asked to respond to critics who say that his stimulus plan won't do enough to help the economy.  Mr. Obama answered that he wants to hear ideas about “how to spend money efficiently and effectively to jump-start the economy.”

Joe the Plumber is here, and he ain't happy  —  Samuel Wurzelbacher of Ohio, aka Joe the Plumber, arrived in Sderot at noon Sunday to show local and foreign reporters how to do it right.  —  “You should be ashamed of yourself,” he told foreign reporters.  —  “You should be patriotic …

Former top Bush officials back Holder  —  Two more former top Bush Justice Department officials have endorsed the nomination of Eric Holder for attorney general, the latest in a growing list of GOP backers for Holder.  —  In letters obtained by Politico and expected to be released shortly …

Gay bishop will open inaugural weekend  —  The Rt. Rev. V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire, who was elected the Episcopal Church's first openly gay bishop in 2003, will deliver the invocation for Sunday's kickoff inaugural event on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, the Presidential Inaugural Committee said.

If Not Ken Blackwell, Keep Mike Duncan  —  RedState endorses Ken Blackwell for Chairman of the Republican National Committee.  —  While RedState's endorsement in the race for Chairman of the Republican National Committee does not set us apart from many of our colleagues in the online right movement, our second choice does.

Obama, Top Aides Lobby for Rest of Bailout Funds  —  Top Aide Heads to Hill to Press Senators  —  President-elect Barack Obama and his team stepped up efforts yesterday to get Congress to approve spending the remaining $350 billion of the controversial $700 billion financial rescue package that was passed last year.

Golden Globes glow with language like that &*%$#@ Blagojevich  —  Usually it's pop culture rubbing off on politics.  —  But Sunday night it sounded like the other %#$&+* way around.  —  As our LATimes.com colleagues Rachel Abramovitz and Tom O'Neil note elsewhere on this site and elsewhere here …

Obama climate czar has socialist ties  —  Group sees ‘global governance’ as solution  —  Until last week, Carol M. Browner, President-elect Barack Obama's pick as global warming czar, was listed as one of 14 leaders of a socialist group's Commission for a Sustainable World Society …

Pro-Joe: Plumber's Trip to Israel Scares the Establishment Media  —  After all, some of the best reporting of the 2006 Israeli-Hezbollah War came from a cook.  (Watch Joe's first report here)  —  Pajamas TV is turning Joe the Plumber into a journalist, and the media class doesn't like it one bit.

Bush Lead During Weakest Economy in Decades  —  Eight-Year Period Is Weakest in Decades  —  President Bush has presided over the weakest eight-year span for the U.S. economy in decades, according to an analysis of key data, and economists across the ideological spectrum increasingly view …

Land mines ahead for Hillary  —  Hillary Clinton, ever the preparation junkie, is cramming for Tuesday's confirmation hearing — intent on downplaying old disagreements with Barack Obama and parrying questions about her husband's overseas entanglements, aides say.