Four More Months?

"The move means that Goodling is likely to testify in front of the House Judiciary Committee on a broad range of questions about the firings that she helped coordinate, including the extent of involvement by Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and the White House, officials said. . . .

"The Justice Department's inspector general, Glenn A. Fine, and H. Marshall Jarrett, head of the Office of Professional Responsibility, have begun a joint inquiry into the prosecutor firings. They indicated in a letter to Conyers that they 'intend to take the investigation wherever it leads.'"

Talking Points Memo has a copy of the letter, which states that "after balancing the significant congressional and public interest against the impact of the Committee's actions on our ongoing investigation, we will not raise an objection or seek a deferral."

Michael Isikoff writes for Newsweek: "Two government officials (not ID'd when talking about an ongoing probe) told Newsweek the [internal Justice Department] inquiry began after Jeff Taylor, the interim U.S. attorney in D.C., complained that Goodling tried to block the hiring of a prosecutor in his office for being a 'liberal Democratic type.'

Carol D. Leonnig writes in The Washington Post: "Taylor ultimately gained permission from the Justice Department to bypass Goodling and hire prosecutors without her review. He hired the civil rights lawyer, who is scheduled to start work on Monday."

Schlozman Watch

Greg Gordon and David Goldstein write for McClatchy Newspapers: "The Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday asked a former acting Justice Department civil rights chief to answer accusations that he was a central figure in a broad Republican strategy to suppress the votes of Democratic-leaning minorities.

"The committee, which has been investigating the firings of eight U.S. attorneys, asked Bradley Schlozman to appear voluntarily and describe his activities as a senior civil rights official and later as a U.S. attorney for Kansas City, Mo. Schlozman was a U.S. attorney there for one year. . . .

"A person familiar with the congressional inquiry, who insisted upon anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the information, described Schlozman as a central figure because he ties together 'all of the threads' of the investigation."

Here's the letter to Schlozman from Sens. Patrick Leahy and Arlen Specter, which explains that "the Committee has learned that the concerns of some in the Administration about voter fraud may have played a significant role in the consideration of U.S. Attorneys for possible dismissal." The letter also notes that White House political guru Karl Rove "talked to the Attorney General about concern with voter fraud in districts in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and New Mexico."

The Royal Visit

"Bush meets the Queen - and she ages 200 years," says the headline over Rupert Cornwell's story in the Independent about Queen Elisabeth II's visit to the White House.

"After 55 years on the throne and having met US presidents stretching back to Dwight Eisenhower, the 81-year-old monarch by any standards is one of the most permanent fixtures on the international scene. But even she was not around in Philadelphia 231 years ago, as Mr Bush almost implied.

"'The American people are proud to welcome your majesty back to the United States, a nation you've come to know very well,' he said in front of 7,000 notables and not-so-notables assembled on the South Lawn of the White House on a sunny, spring morning. 'After all you've dined with 10 US presidents. You've helped our nation celebrate its bicentennial in 17 - in 1976,' he said.