The Monica They See

Still think the U.S. attorneys scandal is just partisan froth whipped up by disingenuous Democrats? Still think Alberto Gonzales is in any way, shape or form qualified to serve as attorney general? Still think the name Monica brings to mind a stain (so to speak) on the Democratic Party but suggests nothing about Republican malfeasance and hubris? Then you must be a Republican member of the House of Representatives.

Everyone else who was listening Wednesday had to be flabbergasted as Republican members of the House Judiciary Committee — apparently having been struck deaf and blind — lobbed softball after softball at witness Monica Goodling. This was after Goodling had already ‘fessed up to applying a political litmus test for career Justice employees. I repeat: career employees, not political appointees. Only loyal Republicans should bother to apply.

The deaf and blind Republicans on the committee apparently missed that part of her opening statement. They also missed the part when she accused Gonzales’s former deputy, Paul McNulty, of telling untruths to Congress — and, in the process, hanging Goodling out to dry. Those dogged GOP interrogators did, however, manage to elicit from Goodling the startling disclosure that she believes she is a good person and also the revelation that while she might have broken a few laws, she didn’t set out to do anything illegal.