Loyal to the White House, Not the Rule of Law (by John Nichols for The Nation)

[marmar]

BLOG | Posted 05/23/2007 @ 1:17pm
Loyal to the White House, Not the Rule of Law


Regent University School of Law graduate Monica Goodling, whose meteoric rise to the highest levels of the Department of Justice put her in a position to aid and abet a program of politicizing prosecutions by U.S. Attorneys, opened her testimony before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday by invoking her fifth amendment right to refuse to make statements that might incriminate her. Committee chair John Conyers, D-Michigan, then delivered to Goodling a grant of immunity that allowed her to do something that is rare indeed for Bush administration true believers: tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

Goodling was right to be concerned about incriminating herself. Under questioning from Democratic committee members, the former political commissar for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales repeatedly admitted to "crossing the line" that separates legal and illegal activities by federal officials. In so doing she offered another powerful insight into the way in which the Bush administration, to which Goodling says she was unquestioningly loyal, has replaced the rule of law with political calculations.

Whether Goodling met the "truth, whole truth and nothing but the truth" mandate remains open to question. Like her former boss, she suffered from convenient memory loss at times regarding critical questions. But Goodling's "I don't recalls" came far less frequently than those of Gonzales. And she was willing to take a good deal more responsibility for what went awry in the Department of Justice than has the man who remains, tenuously, in charge of the agency.

...(snip)...

The former White House liaison for the DOJ told the committee she never attended meetings with top White House aides involving the areas for which she was responsible. At several turns, Goodling portrayed herself as a strangely disconnected and powerless underling who was left out of meetings, told to stay in the shadows, sent away from important sessions in taxis and otherwise neglected, dismissed and overlooked. Yes, she may have had the title of Director of Public Affairs, but, "no," Goodling told the committee, she was "not a decision maker." Rather, she at one point presented herself as a sort of departmental cheerleader who would send out emails to political appointees asking "Hey, who wants to go up to the White House...?"

But the woman, who earned her law degree from a school that teaches courses on how lawyers in positions of authority can use their power to identify and punish "sins," confirmed the crisis in the Bush administration's Justice Department, and the manner in which she perpetuated it.

"I do acknowledge that I may have gone too far in asking political questions of applicants for career positions, and may have taken inappropriate political considerations into account on some occasions," Goodling told the committee early in her testimony. She said she made "snap judgments" to block qualified applicants because they were Democrats. Only under intense questioning from committee members Linda Sanchez, D-California, and Jerry Nadler, D-New York, did she offer the details and perspective that made it clear her so-called "mistakes" were part of a deliberate and ongoing pattern of politicization of the hiring process at the nation's chief law-enforcement agency. .....(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.thenation.com/blogs/thebeat?bid=1&pid=198563

[BOSSHOG]

1. Never attended meetings with WH personnel involving areas

for which she was responsible?!? What a pathetic excuse for a presidential administration.

I guess those USA's fired themselves.

[Kagemusha]

2. No that's not what she said - she never met with SENIOR aides.

She met with JUNIOR aides - the minions of the big boys. So Gonzales' people talked to Rove's people. A lot.

Edit: And another thing, re: the article itself: she didn't block people because they WERE Democrats. She blocked people because she BELIEVED they were, or hell, that they MIGHT BE Democrats.