Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) responded to President Bush's uncompromising compromise from last week today with the obvious response. From Roll Call (sub. req.):

Senate Democrats have made their next move in the ongoing stalemate involving Federal Election Commission nominees, asking President Bush on Monday to either drop former Justice Department lawyer Hans von Spakovsky or begin persuading Senate Republicans to go along with individual votes to fill the five agency vacancies.

"Despite your commitment that you would accept and agree to individual votes on each of the pending nominations, including Mr. von Spakovsky's, Republican Senate leaders indicated last week that they intend to continue to block such votes," Reid wrote in a letter on Monday to White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten. "This continued obstructionism will prevent the FEC from its important work during this election season, including issuing advisory opinions, rulemakings, enforcement actions and certification of public financing."

As Reid notes, White House officials had whispered last week that Republicans would finally allow a vote on Spakovsky, but Senate Republicans quickly put the kibosh on that notion -- thus eliminating the only aspect of Bush's proposal that gave any ground. And so it goes.