Murray Waas has another update in the Plamegate slog, and it’s a fun one — implicating the President himself in the smear campaign.

Read and learn with us, after the jump.

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• So Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA) has hired Attorney Robert Bonner, who used to run the U.S. Attorney’s Office that’s now investigating Lewis. [TPMMuckraker]

• Did Rove get immunity in exchange for his cooperation? [FireDogLake ]
• Crooked Timber makes it easy to read Solzhenitsyn into Guantanamo. [Crooked Timber]
• Last night Rep. Steve King (R-IA) said Iraq wasn’t very dangerous. In fact, he said, his wife is in more danger living in DC: “Well I by now have a feel for the rhythm of this place called Washington, D.C., and my wife lives here with me, and I can tell you, Mr. Speaker, she’s at far greater risk being a civilian in Washington, D.C. than an average civilian in Iraq.” [Think Progress]
• This one is really just about the photo. [Shakespeare's Sister]

It’s the days when this job’s the easiest that it’s also the saddest. Seriously, a site named “eat crow dot org” and dedicated to clinging desperately to an unlucky guess in the face of all observable evidence could be beaten only by some hypothetical site of rabidly conservative amateurish web video called “Hot Air,” or something. But that would never exist. Right? MORE »

Henry the Intern is on sabbatical. The Daily Briefing isn’t, though it is a bit later than usual.

• President George W. Bush makes a surprise visit to Iraq to visit with new Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, who has just announced a new security plan for Baghdad. [NYT, WP]

• Karl Rove’s attorney announces to the media that his client will not be indicted in Patrick Fitzgerald’s Valerie Plame leak case. Rove is “delighted, obviously….” [WP, NYT]
• Israeli airstrikes kill 10 people in Gaza, hours after “hundreds of Palestinian police loyal to Abbas went on a rampage against the Hamas government.” [NYT]
• The FBI released the 2005 crime statistics, showing an overall nationwide rise in violent crime of 2.5 percent, fueled by a “a surge of killings and other attacks in many Midwestern cities.” Robbery was up 14.6 percent in DC, though rapes and murders were down. [WP]
• David H. Safavian becomes the first person to go to trial on charges related to the Jack Abramoff scandal, with prosecutors accusing him of “doing Jack Abramoff’s bidding” as a federal procurement officer. [WP]
• The EPA loosened a rule designed to keep groundwater near oil drilling sites clean after a well-connected Texas oilman wrote a letter to Karl Rove. Environmentalists are accusing the administration of “political payoff,” due to Rove’s forwarding of the letter to White House environmental advisors with a note reading “get a response ASAP.” [LAT]

* Our good friends at CEI have a new video calling out “Ramblin’ Man” Al Gore for his massive use of petrochemicals. Drudge, of course, eats it up. [CEI; Drudge Report] MORE »

Murray Waas: MORE »

Karl Rove: Still maybe indicted. But maybe not. Hey, maybe we’ll find out this Friday afternoon. Or the following Friday afternoon. In any event: totally a done deal. Secret sources, etc. But maybe not. MORE »

• White House strategists believe the midterm elections offer Bush an opportunity to “rewrite” and “recover” his presidency. Republicans plan to focus on immigration, tax cuts, and homeland security and will “frame the election as a contest with Democrats, confident that voters unhappy with the president will find the opposition even more distasteful.” [WP]
• The GOP is seeing losses “in morale, in fundraising and in early election contests.” [LAT]
• Rep. William Jefferson (D-La.) was caught on tape accepting $100,000 from an investor-turned-informant. [WP, NYT]
• Alberto Gonzales says the government can legally prosecute journalists for publishing classified information. [NYT, WP]
• Patrick Fitzgerald is trying to prove that Scooter Libby lied based on his knowledge of Valerie Plame’s classified status. [WP]
• Laura Bush is “leveraging her popularity” to boost Republican candidates where her husband can’t. [USAT]
• Senators expect immigration compromise this year. [LAT]

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Dear “Eat Crow Dot Org,” MORE »

Remember yesterday, when we evinced skepticism about the Truthout “report” claiming Karl Rove had been indicted (the “report” which some of you continue to send us)? MORE »

• On Sunday’s “Blondie”: “Is the mailman always on Dagwood’s bowling team? Was he sent by Mr. Dithers?”

• Pitchfork review of new Paul Simon album: Have we done this sort of thing before? Sent out Eno to make songwriter relevant?
• Michael Kinsley column: WHAT THE HELL IS MICHAEL KINSLEY TALKING ABOUT?

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