In a stunning politicization of national security, Rudy Giuliani said today that “if a Democrat is elected president in 2008, America will be at risk for another terrorist attack on the scale of Sept. 11, 2001. But if a Republican is elected, he said, especially if it is him, terrorist attacks can be anticipated and stopped.” (Via Atrios)

“Twice now in the past week, Defense Secretary Gates has raised hackles at the White House with headline-making comments on Iraq that sounded a different note from the official line,” saying that the congressional Iraq timeline debate has been helpful, and that the “clock is ticking” for the Iraqi government to make political progress.

Gates’s comments…unsettled Iraq strategists on the Bush team who fear that too many signals about the limits of U.S. patience could backfire, rather than induce the government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to get its act together. “If they feel we’re going to leave, they’ll cut deals with Moqtada Sadr” and other bad guys, says one Iraq expert who consults with the White House.

A DoD official says the Pentagon has heard a “question or two” about Gates’s comments from the White House, but that is all. A White House spokesperson did not immediately return a call asking for comment.

“Deaths and injuries from climate change are set to more than double in the next 25 years, according to estimates” by the World Health Organization. Deaths “linked to even a very narrow number of causes most closely connected to shifting weather patterns will reach more than 300,000 a year by 2030.”

Is Roger Simon really going to attack John Edwards for being too Christian? That’s some kind of new level of lameness.

Rep. Tom Davis (R-VA), the ranking Republican on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said today he will not support the decision of Chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA) to subpoena Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, “marking the first time this year that he has broken with the committee’s top Democrat on a significant committee issue.” Apparently Davis knows everything he needs to know about the run-up to war:

“Subpoenaing Secretary [Condoleezza] Rice to discuss the Iraq-uranium issue is duplicative of multiple investigations that have already been concluded,” [Davis] said.

Davis accused [Waxman] of overstepping his bounds to call on Rice. Waxman wants her to discuss in more detail how a National Security Council aide inserted incorrect intelligence indicating that Iraq sought uranium from Africa into the President Bush’s 2003 State of the Union address.

Tonight on MSNBC, fired U.S. Attorney David Iglesias revealed key new details about the Office of Special Counsel’s (OSC) probe into Karl Rove and other White House officials reported today by the Los Angeles Times.

Iglesias said that on April 3, he filed a Hatch Act complaint with the OSC, charging that Karl Rove and others may have violated the law by firing him over his failure to initiate partisan-motivated prosecutions. Iglesias said he subsequently spoke with OSC chief Scott Bloch, who made clear that he was planning to launch an investigation. Despite suggestions that the White House may have initiated the OSC investigation to obstruct parallel congressional probes, Iglesias expressed confidence in Bloch.

Iglesias also said that while evidence of Rove’s potential illegal actions is currently only circumstantial, “I believe if OSC digs in, they can get direct evidence.”

[T]he Justice Department papers everything. I mean, the most minute issue has an incredible researched and memoed product. There has to be a paper trail. I haven’t seen it yet. If it’s not at the Justice Department, it has got to be at the White House.

Finally, Iglesias said he believes that Monica Goodling — former counsel to Alberto Gonzales and the Justice Department’s liaison to the White House — holds the “keys to the kingdom” in terms of uncovering the roots of the U.S. Attorney purge, since she can describe the communication that took place between the White House and the Justice Department.

Below, key excerpts from Iglesias’ interview: Read more

“Continuing to backpedal after the FBI raided one of his family busineses last week, Rep. Rick Renzi (R-AZ) said in a statement today that he’ll be resigning ‘all my committee assignments.’ Renzi already resigned from his seat on the sensitive House Intelligence Committee last week. He also holds seats on the Committee on Financial Services and Committee on Natural Resources.”

UPDATE: “A week after FBI agents raided his family’s business, Republican Rep. Rick Renzi of Arizona has asked to be dropped from his party’s top campaign program to protect vulnerable incumbents, a clear sign that he is considering a resignation from Congress.”