Former Karl Rove executive assistant Susan Ralston invoked her rights against self-incrimination while being deposed by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA) announced in a memo.

“The subjects this morning that she will be unable to testify to…are the subjects of the relationship between Jack Abramoff and his associates and White House officials, including Ms. Ralston, and the subject of the use by White House officials of political e-mail accounts at the RNC,” Ralston’s lawyer, Bradford Berenson said, during the May 10 deposition. “She has material, useful information about both of those subjects.”

According to Waxman’s memo, which was sent to Oversight Committee members, Ralston is seeking immunity from prosecution.

The immigration compromise reached last week is a flawed deal, an attempt to “bridge the chasm between brittle hard-liners who want the country to stop absorbing so many outsiders, and those who want to give immigrants — illegal ones, too — a fair and realistic shot at the American dream.” Yet it represents a critical first step toward fixing our shattered immigration system and providing a path to citizenship for most of the 12 million undocumented immigrants living in the country today.

Yesterday on PBS’s Newshour, Jessica Vaughan of the conservative Center for Immigration Studies, argued that the best way to “deal with the problem” would be to make “this a more inhospitable place to be for people who are working in the country illegally.” She added that “people are eventually going to give up and go home on their own. And that’s what the American people most definitely wants to see happen.” Watch it:

Many people on the right wing — such as Vaughan — are opposed not only to this bill, but to any deal that doesn’t immediately deport every undocumented immigrant. CNN host Lou Dobbs recently said that “because this is the United States,” it is possible to deport all undocumented immigrants. Today on NPR, Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) advocated that the U.S. government “round them up.”

Additionally, the overwhelming majority of Americans — 80 percent — support the process of earned citizenship.

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In his new book The Assault on Reason, Al Gore wrote that Bush’s efforts to connect Iraq to 9/11 were an example of the administration’s willful “deception” of the public:

When the administration is told specifically and repeatedly by the most authoritative sources that there is no linkage, but then in spite of the best evidence continues to make bold and confident assertions to the American people that leave the impression with 70 percent of the country that Saddam Hussein was linked to al-Qaeda and was primarily responsible for the 9/11 attack, this can only be labeled deception. [p.108]

This afternoon, White House press secretary Tony Snow took issue with this passage. “[Bush] has never tried to make” the connection between Iraq and 9/11, Snow said. “And what [Gore] is doing, it’s been tried by a lot of other people, which is to take something the president hasn’t said, expose it as a, quote, lie, and then beat him up for it. … The president’s been straight about the intel.”

Snow attacked Gore’s book, saying, “I don’t know if they’re going to do a reprinting of the book to try to get the facts straight. The fact-checkers may have to take a look at it.” He added, “These are highly complex publishing issues and I can’t be an expert on them.” Watch it:

To justify the war, Bush informed Congress on March 19, 2003 that acting against Iraq was consistent with “continuing to take the necessary actions against international terrorists and terrorist organizations, including those nations, organizations, or persons who planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001.”

As ThinkProgress has repeatedly documented, Vice President Cheney cited “evidence” cooked up by Douglas Feith and others to claim it was “pretty well confirmed” that Iraq had contacts with 9/11 hijackers.

More generally, in the lead-up to the war in Iraq, the administration encouraged the false impression that Saddam had a role in 9/11. Bush never stated then, as he does now, that Iraq had “nothing” to do with 9/11. Only after the Iraq war began did Bush candidly acknowledge that Iraq was not operationally linked to 9/11.

UPDATE: In a conference call this afternoon, Vice President Gore responded to Snow’s attack, saying: “Unlike the President’s State of the Union address, this book was actually fact checked.”

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The Marine Corps “waited over a year before acting on an ‘priority 1 urgent’ request to send blast-resistant vehicles to Iraq.” As Danger Room notes, “the request for over 1,000 Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles came in February, 2005. A formal call to fulfill that order did not emerge until November, 2006.” Approximately 1,373 U.S. soldiers have been killed by roadside bombs in Iraq.

On April 23, Capt. Josh Gibbs wrote an opinion piece in the Marine Corps Times arguing, “It’s time to allow gays to serve openly in the military.” A week later, he was notified that he was relieved of duty due to “loss of confidence.” He is now being reassigned to Okinawa, Japan.