From the Tribune:

Rove identified as link to fired U.S. attorneys
White House: He may have conveyed GOP ire to Gonzales

By Ron Hutcheson, Marisa Taylor and Margaret Talev, McClatchy Newspapers
Published March 12, 2007

WASHINGTON -- The White House acknowledged on Sunday that presidential adviser Karl Rove served as a conduit for complaints to the Justice Department about federal prosecutors who later were fired for what critics charge were partisan political reasons.

House investigators on Sunday declared their intention to question Rove.

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said Rove had relayed complaints from Republican officials and others to the Justice Department and the White House counsel's office.

She said Rove, the chief White House political operative, specifically recalled passing along complaints about then-U.S. Atty. David Iglesias and may have mentioned Iglesias to Atty. Gen. Alberto Gonzales.

Iglesias says he believes he lost his job as the top federal prosecutor in New Mexico after rebuffing Republican pressure to speed his investigation of a Democratic state official.

Perino said Rove might have mentioned the complaints about Iglesias "in passing" to Gonzales.

"He doesn't exactly recall, but he may have had a casual conversation with the A.G. to say he had passed those complaints to Harriet Miers," Perino said, relaying Rove's hazy recollection.

She said Rove told her he did not suggest that any of the eight prosecutors be forced to resign.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.) and panel member Linda Sanchez (D-Calif.) "intend to talk with Karl Rove about any role he may have had in the firing of the U.S. attorneys," said Sanchez spokesman James Dau.

The Senate's No. 3 Democrat, Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), said Sunday that Gonzales should resign because of the firings and Gonzales' failure to catch privacy infringements by federal investigators operating under the USA Patriot Act.