A compilation of our girl Monica: first, from Daily Kos contributor Emptywheel:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/4/8/142351/6329Monica Goodling's Loyalty Oaths
by emptywheel
Sun Apr 08, 2007 at 11:33:17 AM PDT
Josh Marshall notes a passage in a BoGlo article that suggests the politicization of the DOJ started before Kyle Sampson's suggestions to fire all the USAs in 2005. In fact, John Ashcroft changed hiring practices so as to make it easier to politicize hiring in 2002:
"Their path to employment was further eased in late 2002, when John Ashcroft, then attorney general, changed longstanding rules for hiring lawyers to fill vacancies in the career ranks.
Previously, veteran civil servants screened applicants and recommended whom to hire, usually picking top students from elite schools."
2002 ... 2002 ... What happened in 2002? Well, for starters, that's when Monica Goodling came over to DOJ with Barbara Comstock: Goodling quickly won Comstock’s trust for her hard work and talent for digging up information on tort litigation and judicial nominations. And when Griffin left in 2001, Goodling became Comstock’s deputy. They helped prepare Ashcroft and Theodore Olson for their confirmation hearings to be attorney general and solicitor general, respectively.
When Comstock became Ashcroft’s spokeswoman in 2002, she brought Goodling along as her deputy. Goodling stayed for three years. In no time, Goodling became "indispensable" to the office, says Corallo, who became Ashcroft’s spokesman in 2003. "I have never known anybody that works harder or does better work than her."
Her dedication was legendary, so much so that Ashcroft’s office would ask to "borrow" her for projects. Corallo says Goodling would stay all night."I’d come in at 8 a.m., and she’d be sleeping on my sofa in the office."
Goodling often traveled with Ashcroft on tours promoting neighborhood safety and the Patriot Act. Former colleagues say Ashcroft also had a particular taste for Goodling’s brownies. She was meticulous and a perfectionist. She was the point person on judicial nominations, often working in the Office of Legal Policy with then-Assistant Attorney General Viet Dinh, says a former colleague....I hate to keep harping on this point. But it seems pretty damn likely that Monica Goodling was right at the center of the inappropriate politicization of career DOJ employees.
You see, I think it highly likely that one of the reasons Goodling is pleading the Fifth is because she caused Paul McNulty to commit perjury. But another reason--a much bigger one, given the centrality of the politicization of DOJ hiring to the scandal surrounding the USA purge, is because she committed regular violations of the laws in place to prevent the politicization of our career employees.
287 comments, if you want more....
Next, from OpEdNews:
OpEdNews
Original Content at
http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_f__vyan__070408_tpm_3a_is_this_monica_.htm--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
April 8, 2007
TPM: Is This Monica Goodling?
By F. Vyan Walton
Crossposted from Dailykos and Truth 2 Power Blog)
On Friday Josh Marshall released a video blog that investigates whether former Justice Dept Official Monica Goodling had been part of the Bush Opposition Research Team during the 2000 debates based on video and documents from that time.
Click to View Video (see link for video)
I think to most people with decent eyesight, the answer to that question just might be "Hell, Yes!"
Based on a year 2000 BBC documentary on oppo-research head Tim Griffin (who was selected as one of the recent replacement U.S. Attorney's) TPM breaks down the scene frame-by-frame then compares the image of a blonde woman to various pictures of Monica Goodling which are still available from Pat Robertson's Regent University.
Tim can even be heard saying "Hey, Monica..."
Documentatation of Monica's employement during that period can be confirmed via Law.com
After graduating in 1999, Goodling landed a job at the D.C. headquarters of the Republican National Committee just as the 2000 Bush-Cheney campaign was ramping up. Goodling's position put her inside the newly created war room for political opposition research. There, she worked alongside a crew of party faithful who would later shepherd her through the ranks at Justice.
Among Goodling's close associates were Barbara Comstock, head of opposition research for the RNC and later the chief spokeswoman for Ashcroft; Griffin, Comstock's deputy, whom Goodling would later help to win the interim appointment to replace one of the eight ousted U.S. Attorneys in Arkansas; and Mark Corallo, who in 2003 took the helm of the Justice Department's Public Affairs Office after Comstock.
Following Comstock into John Ashcroft's Justice Deptartment, Monica rose through the ranks quickly due to her hard work and tendency to even toil through the night on issues such as the Patriot Act, ultimately becoming the primary point person on judicial nominees.
Later in 2005 after rotating through a stint of prosecutorial training she became the DOJ White House Liason, a senior member of Alberto Gonzales staff who performed...
as the gatekeeper for the White House for all 400-some political appointees in the Justice Department, from U.S. Attorneys and marshals to secretaries.
So what we have here is a hard-core card-carring Christo-Fascist Fundie (like her good friend Rachel "The Wicked Witch of the East" Paulose) , educated by Pat Robertson's Law school which has always been intended to produce hard-right wing Madison Society styled prosecutors and judges for eventually appointment to the Supreme Court and the destruction of Wade, becoming a high end RNC political operative and then moving on to become the point person on all political appointees in the Justice Department.
Gee, I don't know what ever might stink to high heaven in that situation.
All snark aside, if there's still a skeleton hiding in the closet of the prosecutor purge that hasn't already been revealed in the previous doco dumps of DOJ emails - in which Monica is featured prominently, even as an attendee of November 27th meeting with AG Gonzales just ten days before the firings - Monica knows where it's buried.
After announcing that she would plead the 5th Amendment to Congress, Monica resigned from the Justice Dept, without giving a full explaination. (This ironically was just one day after Josh's report was originally released)
I am hereby submitting my resignation to the Office of the Attorney General, effective April 7, 2007. It has been an honor to have served at the Department of Justice for the past five years. May God bless you richly as you continue your service to America.
But it's clear to me, particular after listening to Josh, that her resignation was most likely pre-emptive to avoid being fired if she refused to participate in the DOJ's own internal probe into possible Hatch Act Violations.
Updated 1:51 4-7-07:
The Hatch Act restricts the political activity of executive branch employees of the federal government, District of Columbia government and some state and local employees who work in connection with federally funded programs. In 1993, Congress passed legislation that significantly amended the Hatch Act as it applies to federal and D.C. employees (5 U.S.C. §§ 7321-7326). (These amendments did not change the provisions that apply to state and local employees. 5 U.S.C. §§ 1501- 1508.) Under the amendments most federal and D.C. employees are now permitted to take an active part in political management and political campaigns. A small group of federal employees are subject to greater restrictions and continue to be prohibited from engaging in partisan political management and partisan political campaigns.
Those employees subject to increased restrictions on political activities include those working at:
. Central Intelligence Agency
. Criminal Division (Department of Justice)
. Federal Bureau of Investigation
. Federal Election Commission
. Office of Special Counsel
. National Security Agency
. National Security Council
The situation has become so bad, that even Newt Gingrich has stated that Alberto Gonzales has to go.
"The public would be much better served to have another attorney general," said Newt Gingrich. "I cannot imagine how he’s going to be effective for the rest of his administration. They’re going to be involved in endless hearings."
Vyan
Authors Website:
http://www.truth2powerproject.comAuthors Bio:
Born and Bred in South Central LA. I spent 12 years working in the IT Dept. for federal contractor Northrop-Grumman on classified and high security projects such as the B2 Bomber. After Northrop I became an IT consultant with the state of California in Sacramento and worked on projects with the Dept of Consumer Affairs and CalTrans, as well as projects for Kaiser Permanente in Oakland. Now living in Los Angeles on my own independant web design company.
And finally, from Rob Kall himself:
OpEdNews
Original Content at
http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_rob_kall_070409_bush_s_monica__no_bl.htm--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
April 9, 2007
Bush's Monica- No Blowjob-- Just Screwing
By Rob Kall
Monica Goodling could be the straw that breaks the camel's back for the Bush/Cheney whitehouse. But instead of giving Bush a blowjob, she spread her legs, integrity-wise, and screwed American justice. She helped set up, plan and coordinate the firing of at least eight US attorneys who were engaged in investigations of Republican corruption...I've been saying, all along, that for Bush to be removed from the Whitehouse, it will take a group of Republican senators, at least a dozen, taking "THE WALK" to the Whitehouse, informing Dubya that he's toast, that they're ready to vote with the Democrats for impeachment, to save any hope for survival for the Republican party.
It has begun.
Newt Gingrich, former House Speaker and still one of the top dogs in the GOP, told Fox News it is time for not just a new attorney general, but a whole sweep, across the board.
"I think the country, in fact, would be much better served to have a new team at the Justice Department, across the board," Gingrich said, also, commenting on Gonzales, that he "cannot imagine how he is going to be effective for the rest of this administration."
Gingrich one of the think point men for the GOP. He's initiated a pattern, a response that will be copied by other senators.
I would guess that within a week or two of the Senate's return to work, one of two things will happen.
-Gonzales will resign-- he'll resign in an attempt to shut down the investigations and to take the pressure off of Goodling, with the hopes she won't be forced to testify, even with immunity. He may even resign in exchange for the investigations shutting down. I don't think Leahy or Conyers will buy it.
-Goodling will be rushed to testimony. If they're smart, Leahy and Conyers will get her under oath. She's not the target. They should offer her some kind of immunity for her testimony, but only if she goes all the way, and tells the whole story, including all the details of how they handled emails, who the messengers were, etc.
Of course, there are more potential witnesses-- more executive assistants, lower level people who were in on some of the conversations. Maybe Leahy and Conyers should start putting people in jail if they don't testify, for contempt of congress. That might be a good way, starting with MOnica Goodling, to loosen some tongues.
Nancy Pelosi and the congressional democrats said impeachment was off the table. But that was based on what they knew, what they had at the time. Now, it's a whole new ballgame. Many of us had hoped that congressional hearings and investigations would bear new fruit that could be used to generate new, stronger, more solid evidence and reasons to impeach. It's happening.
We had hopes that new whistleblowers would make themselves known and testify. This was pretty much an essential development. It has happened. Ironically, the eight attorneys who were fired and defamed have become the most convincing whistleblowers. More will be coming. But they'll come faster if they see they are risk if they don't come forward. There's the possibility that efforts to flush out whistleblowers might scare them deeper into hiding. But This case is exploding. These are smart people They can see the writing on the wall, and it spells a future where the involved parties are going to be outed.
Authors Bio: Rob Kall is executive editor and publisher of OpEdNews.com, President of Futurehealth, Inc, and organizer of several conferences, including StoryCon, the Summit Meeting on the Art, Science and Application of Story and The Winter Brain Meeting on neurofeedback, biofeedback, Optimal Functioning and Positive Psychology. He is a frequent Speaker on Politics, The art, science and power of story, heroes and the hero's journey, Positive Psychology, Stress, Biofeedback and a wide range of subjects.
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