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 …

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 …

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 …

Saudis Publicly Get Tough With U.S.  —  King's Remarks on Iraq Follow Signs Riyadh Is Distancing Itself From Bush  —  Of all the foreign leaders President Bush has dealt with over the past six years, few have been as direct or blunt in private as Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah, according to U.S. officials.

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.

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 …

Grass Roots Planted In Cyberspace  —  John Edwards's Campaign Leads the Field In Political Use of Social Networking Sites  —  If there's a social networking site that John Edwards is not a part of, we'd like to know what it is, pronto.  —  No one's sure exactly what role these sites …

"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:

Iraqi Widow Saves Her Home, but Victory Is Brief  —  The two men showed up on Tuesday afternoon to evict Suaada Saadoun's family.  One was carrying a shiny black pistol.  —  Ms. Saadoun was a Sunni Arab living in a Shiite enclave of western Baghdad.  A widowed mother of seven, she and her family had been chased out once before.

Don't confuse terrorism with Islam, says EU  —  The European Union has drawn up guidelines advising government spokesmen to refrain from linking Islam and terrorism in their statements.  —  Brussels officials have confirmed the existence of a classified handbook which offers "non-offensive" …

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.

Transplant Update (Update: Success!)  —  I have a few moments to update everyone on the First Mate's progress.  She went into surgery around 9:15 CT, about an hour ago.  The donor went into surgery earlier, as is normal, and everything we see tells us that both surgeries are going smoothly.

Controversial leader of family planning office resigns  —  WASHINGTON — The head of the federal office responsible for providing women with access to contraceptives and counseling to prevent pregnancy resigned unexpectedly Thursday after Medicaid officials took action against him in Massachusetts.

TIME TO ADMIT OVERSIGHT?  —  Is Time trying to bury the attorney general scandal that's seized Washington, D.C., for the past three months?  In just the last week, new documents emerged contradicting Alberto Gonzales's account of his role in the firings, a low-level Department …

6 candidates to campaign across Iowa over 5 days  —  The busy period will include the debut of former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani in the leadoff caucus state.  —  The presidential campaign in Iowa will approach warp drive over the next several days, with the debut of former …

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 …

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 …

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.