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Monica Goodling Appears
The cameras were ready. The photographers scooted and nudged for just the right spot. They waited.
Finally, Monica Goodling walked in the room to a symphony of shutters. She walked as erect as a queen.
Her long blond hair was well groomed, her black suit just somber enough for the occasion of testifying before the House Judiciary Committee about her role in the questionable firings of nine U.S. attorneys last year.
For 17 minutes, Goodling sat alone at the long brown government issue table while the cameras marked her every move.
Committee chair Conyers was so frustrated by the number of cameras that he ordered them removed. And the show began.
“If we cannot trust the Department of Justice to fairly and impartially enforce our nation’s laws … then we will have suffered the loss of one of our nation’s most fundamental principles — the rule of law,” said Conyers.
And as promised, Goodling delivered.
Her testimony began by refuting everything that Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty testified.
Goodling took issue with McNulty’s allegation that she withheld information from him causing him to give incomplete information to Congress.
“That allegation is false,” Goodling said. “I did not withhold information from the deputy.
To the contrary, I worked diligently to compile and provide the deputy with dozens of pages of statistics and other information.”
Goodling admitted that she “crossed the line” in asking party affiliation before hiring career prosecutors.
“I don’t believe I intended to commit a crime,” Goodling said under questioning by Rep. Bobby Scott, R-Va. “I know I crossed the line of civil service rules. I didn’t mean to.”
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