memeorandum: 15 Britons In a Sea Of Intrigue (David Ignatius/Washington Post)

3:15 PM ET, March 30, 2007

Top Items:

Michael Roston / The Raw Story:

Key Rove aide fingered in US Attorney investigation to step down; Could face subpoena — Multiple sources reported today that a top aide to President George W. Bush's key adviser Karl Rove will soon step down from her job in the White House. The aide, Sara M. Taylor, was identified …

Washington Wire:

White House Faces More Departures — John D. McKinnon reports on staff changes at the White House. — Several impending departures from the White House could further complicate life for the hard-pressed Bush administration. — Peter Wehner, the head of strategic initiatives …

Discussion: The Carpetbagger Report and Democratic Underground

Washington Post:

Panel Asks Rove for Information on '08 Election Presentation — The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee sought more information yesterday about a presentation by a White House aide given to political appointees at the General Services Administration that discussed targeting 20 …

Discussion: The Unapologetic Mexican, The BRAD BLOG, CANNONFIRE, The Democratic Daily and Think Progress

Peter Baker / Washington Post:

Policy Aide's Departure Continues Transformation of Bush's Staff — Over the past several years, Peter H. Wehner has sent a blizzard of e-mails around the White House and the rest of Washington, offering strategy and policy ideas to President Bush and making the case for those policies to outsiders.

Discussion: David Corn

Paul Kiel / TPMmuckraker:

Rove Aide Resigns — Maybe it's a coincidence. — White House political director Sara Taylor is out the door at the White House, according to Washington Wire. Taylor came up a number of times yesterday during the Kyle Sampson hearing as having worked closely with Sampson …

Washington Post:

Giuliani Sees Policy Role for Wife — Former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani told ABC News's Barbara Walters that he would welcome his wife, Judith, at White House Cabinet meetings and other policy discussions if he were elected president next year. — "If she wanted to," Giuliani said in the …

Discussion: Captain's Quarters, New York Times, No More Mister Nice Blog, Debbie Schlussel, Althouse and ABCNEWS

Larry McShane / Associated Press:
Giuliani faces questions about Sept. 11

Discussion: The Strata-Sphere, Brilliant at Breakfast, Right Wing Nut House and Liberal Values

William K. Rashbaum / New York Times:
Testimony by Giuliani Indicates He Was Briefed on Kerik in '00

Denise Lavoie / Associated Press:

Gonzales defends his role in firings — BOSTON - Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, amid a growing clamor for his resignation, acknowledged Friday confusion about of his role in firing eight U.S. attorneys but said he doesn't "recall being involved in deliberations" over which prosecutors were to be ousted.

Discussion: TPMmuckraker

Alan Cooperman / Washington Post:
Bush Loyalist Rose Quickly at Justice

Discussion: Balloon Juice, Abovethelaw.com, Middle Earth Journal and Political Animal

Nico / Think Progress:

Rush Limbaugh: — Don't fire Gonzales even though he's incompetent because winning elections is much more important: … More Rush: "USA Today's got a poll: 'Do you think something's wrong about the firing of eight US attorneys?' 72% said yes. 72% of the American people …

Discussion: The Carpetbagger Report and NewsHog

RushLimbaugh.com Home:

Warming: Do Not Give Democrats the Head of Alberto Gonzales — BEGIN TRANSCRIPT — RUSH: Let's move on to Kyle Sampson, who was testifying today before the Leaky Leahy Judiciary Committee in the United States Senate. There was a lot of hubbub about Kyle Sampson.

Hassan M. Fattah / New York Times:

Heads of Arab States Prod Israel to Embrace Peace Offer — The leaders of 21 Arab governments on Thursday called on Israel to embrace a peace initiative that would have it withdraw from the land it occupied in the 1967 war in exchange for full diplomatic relations with them, saying the window would not remain open for long.

Discussion: normblog and DownWithTyranny!

Washington Post:
Saudis Publicly Get Tough With U.S.

Discussion: Foreign Policy Watch and Reuters

Simon Heffer / Telegraph:

Online comment: Heading for war with Iran? — I start to wonder whether it might not be time for us to get as nasty with other countries as they do with us. — As we wait anxiously to see what will happen to our 15 hostages - for that is what they are - in Teheran, we should feel undiluted rage …

Discussion: Hot Air and Verum Serum

Alan Cowell / New York Times:
Tehran Levels New Charges About Seized Britons

Discussion: Redstate, BAGnewsNotes, FP Passport, Michael P.F. van der Galiën and TCS Daily

Associated Press:

FOX NEWS, BLACK CAUCUS TEAM FOR DEBATES — WASHINGTON — Fox News, rebounding from a presidential debate squabble with Democrats, has a new deal with an old debate partner. The cable news network will co-sponsor primary debates for each party's presidential field this fall in association …

Discussion: ColorOfChange.org, The Caucus and Facing South

ColorOfChange.org:
Rev. Jesse Jackson Denounces Congressional Black Caucus Institute's FOX Debate

Discussion: Daily Kos, Jack and Jill Politics, Crooks and Liars and Pam's House Blend

Charles Krauthammer / Washington Post:

Which Is 'The Real War'? — "Our bill calls for the redeployment of U.S. troops out of Iraq so that we can focus more fully on the real war on terror, which is in Afghanistan." — The Senate and the House have both passed bills for ending the Iraq war, or at least liquidating the American involvement in it.

Discussion: Redstate, QandO, Booman Tribune, Registan.net, Wake up America, The Influence Peddler, AMERICAN FUTURE, Gateway Pundit and Soccer Dad

Bill / INDCJournal:

"The USMC/Iraqi team was sluggin' it out side by side." (Chlorine Gas Attack Update) — Lt. Col. Clayton Fisher, commander of MiTT 6 at the brigade level (and my chaperone on an IA mission) was injured in Wednesday's chlorine truck bomb attack on the Fallujah Government Center and left this comment:

The Daily Howler:

DISAPPEARING ICE DISAPPEARED! At HuffPo, Mooney described three parts—of an ongoing, four-part problem: — THE STORY OF CHRIS AND THE BIG HORNY MONSTER: Who should Democrats nominate for the White House? At THE HOWLER, we haven't decided. But if you still don't understand the venom aimed …

Discussion: Eschaton, Lawyers, Guns and Money and Whiskey Fire

Juliet Eilperin / Washington Post:

Report Faults Interior Appointee — Landowner Issues Trumped Animal Protections, IG Says — A senior Bush political appointee at the Interior Department has repeatedly altered scientific field reports to minimize protections for imperiled species and disclosed confidential information …

Discussion: New York Times, The Carpetbagger Report, The Gavel, TPMmuckraker and Political Animal

David Ignatius / Washington Post:

15 Britons In a Sea Of Intrigue — BERLIN — We are in a season of skulduggery in the Middle East, with a strange series of events that all involve the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. The murky saga is a reminder that the real power in Iran may lie with this secretive organization …

Discussion: NewsHog and Lawyers, Guns and Money

Craig Murray:

Both Sides Must Stop This Mad Confrontation, Now — There is no agreed maritime boundary between Iraq and Iran in the Persian Gulf. Until the current mad propaganda exercise of the last week, nobody would have found that in the least a controversial statement.

Discussion: The Huffington Post, NewsHog, FP Passport, barrylando.com and The Impolitic

Ann Althouse / Althouse:

Those prissy, puritanical lefty bloggers. — There's been a lot of talk about me lately in the left-o-sphere. And, sorry, but I'm not going to link to it. You know how to find things. Anyway, for the most part, I don't answer back. As my mother used to say: You'll only encourage them.