The New Monica

By Scott Horton

Monica Goodling is the Regent University law graduate who rocketed to a high position in the Gonzales Justice Department on a very thin résumé. Testimony to date put her at the epicenter of the decisions to fire the eight U.S. attorneys. Over at The New Republic, she has been adopted as a new poster girl for the Bush hackocracy. Goodling rattled Washington by having her lawyers give notice that she would not appear and testify before the Judiciary Committee-they insisted that she would invoke her Fifth Amendment rights not to testify. The assertion took many by surprise, unleashing a torrent of law professors speculating on blog sites about how a DOJ lawyer who had not yet testified could possibly be in a position to invoke the Fifth Amendment?

Of course, Ms. Goodling has every right to invoke the Fifth Amendment; the response of investigators would be to get her a grant of immunity so that her testimony can be compelled. Which raises the question that two career prosecutors on the Judiciary Committee, Leahy and Whitehouse, put to Attorney General Gonzales: to whom do we turn? The top three officials of the Department are all implicated in the same affair and would obviously be conflicted. They point to an obvious solution: appointment of a special prosecutor to handle the matter.

No response from the Justice Department yet on that score. However, Goodling's case raises another fascinating point. She continues to be on the payroll of the Department of Justice, but she is, through her lawyers, invoking the Fifth Amendment in an effort to avoid providing evidence to Congressional overseers. How is that possible?