EXCLUSIVE: No Deal for Karl Rove  —  Sometimes people just don't know when to cry "uncle."  I do.  I asked Robert Luskin this morning if Karl Rove has made a deal with Fitzgerald.  His response: … Which is exactly what Luskin told me weeks ago.  It's over, folks.  Karl Rove will not be charged with a crime.

Bush Meets With Iraqi PM in Surprise Trip  —  BAGHDAD, Iraq — President Bush, seeking to bolster support for Iraq's burgeoning goverment and U.S. war policy at home, made a surprise visit to Iraq on Tuesday to meet newly named Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and discuss the next steps in the troubled 3-year-old war.

Bush May Meet Vow To Halve The Deficit Three Years Early  —  Aided by surging tax receipts, President Bush may make good on his pledge to cut the deficit in half in 2006 — three years early.  —  Tax revenues are running $176 billion, or 12.9%, over last year, the Treasury Department said Monday.

Panel: Churchill should be fired  —  Ward Churchill, the professor who called some of the World Trade Center victims "little Eichmanns," should be fired because of "repeated and deliberate" infractions of scholarship rules, a University of Colorado committee said today.

U.S. court tosses lawsuit over "In God We Trust"  —  SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A U.S. district court judge on Monday dismissed a lawsuit brought by a California atheist against the U.S. government for its use of the phrase "In God We Trust" on its coins and currency.

Letters policy  —  Here is the policy that Editorial Board editors use in selecting letters to the editor for publication in The Arizona Republic:  —  1. Letters must be signed.  All letters must be verified prior to publication.  We don't publish unsigned letters.  —  2. Clarity, conciseness of language.

A Bush Aide's Blunt Words  —  New Adviser Pulled No Punches in His Magazine Pieces  —  Bill Clinton is a "virtuoso deceiver" and Hillary Rodham Clinton a "true chameleon" guilty of "self-serving behavior, comparative radicalism, and dubious personal morality."  —  Al Gore is a "mad dog" known to "foam at the mouth."

To Make a Point, An Army Officer Helps Iraqi Convict  —  Rule of Law Should Apply  —  To All, Capt. Carter Says;  —  Confessions Won by Cable  —  'Grudge' of the 'Fat Woman'?  —  BAQUBAH, Iraq — Capt. Phillip Carter visits the filthy, overcrowded prison here at least twice a week …

Among the Believers: Beating Up on Big Media  —  Dispatch: At the Yearly Kos convention, bloggers schmooze like the big-leaguers but haven't lost their attitude  —  Mark Warner kept referring to the party he threw last weekend for the attendees of the Yearly Kos convention as the "first date" …

Help the Family of an LAPD Officer Paralyzed in the Line of Duty  —  As regular readers know, I generally do not actively solicit donations or hold pledge drives.  But I'd like to ask you to consider making a donation today — not to me, but to the family of an LAPD officer who has been shot and paralyzed.