Clinton Mocks, Draws Rebukes

-- Shailagh Murray

SURPRISE ENDORSEMENT

Bush: Clinton Used to Pressure

President Bush offered up an unexpected endorsement, of sorts, for Clinton, insinuating in an interview with ABC News that her experience "under pressure" boosts her 2008 bid to become president.

"I think she's a very formidable candidate," he said. "One of the interesting things that she brings is that she has been under pressure. She understands the klieg lights. You know what I'm talking about."

But Bush emphasized, "I'm going to try to stay out of these races."

"I would tell you what . . . these candidates don't really understand is how complex the environment is inside the Oval Office," Bush said. "And how important it is to have a set of principles from which you will not deviate, and so that you can make good sound decisions. . . . I think it's impossible for anybody to fully comprehend, you know, how much incoming there is."

-- Michael Abramowitz and Robin Wright

CAMPAIGN ADVERTISING

Special Interest Ads Are Back

The Federal Election Commission has reopened the door for corporations and unions to pay for television commercials during the upcoming presidential and congressional campaigns, as long as the ads avoid expressly advocating for or against a candidate.

The new rules, approved yesterday, come in response to a recent Supreme Court decision that knocked out a key provision of the landmark 2002 legislation overhauling the nation's campaign finance laws. The law prohibited issue advertising, paid for with corporate or union money, that named a candidate 30 days before a primary or 60 days before a general election.

The new FEC approach is expected to allow unions and special interest groups to air ads during a campaign that purport to be about a specific issue but are in fact intended to sway voters to or away from a particular candidate.

Loyola Law Professor Rick Hasen, who has been closely following debate on the campaign rules, said the new FEC language will provide a safe haven for groups that want to use "sham issue ads" to promote their candidate. In his blog yesterday he offered some hypothetical examples of advertising messages that would now be permitted, including: "Call Sen. Clinton and tell her to stop coddling illegal aliens and terrorists by supporting the NY drivers' license plan."

James Bopp, the Republican Indiana lawyer who successfully argued before the Supreme Court that the campaign finance provision was unconstitutional, said the FEC "made a good-faith effort to come up with a definition of the types of communication that were protected by the Supreme Court."

-- Matthew Mosk