In Our Opinion...

There Was Nothing Good About The Mission of Monica Goodling

This nation’s, democratically elected, representative form of government has worked over more than two centuries, essentially predicated on a two-party system. And, while those two parties, were not always known as the Republicans and Democrats, the philosophies separating them, for the most part, have defined the bright line between wealthy, and working class, Americans. Put quite simply, Republicans believe that if Big Business is prospering, everyone will be doing well. Democrats, on the other hand, have always held that if farmers and laborers were prospering the nation’s businesses would also prosper.

Come national election time Americans have traditionally laid aside other concerns, and, depending upon the state of the economy, whether we were at war or peace, or some other compelling issue, have gotten involved, many passionately, in the process and debate. Until very recently, both sides however could always find common ground in the Constitutional separation of Church and State. Apparently, not so, the Bush Administration.

In both houses of Congress investigations into the firings of eight United States Attorneys, and the planned firing of many more, have peeled back the cover on one of the uglier political operations instituted under the oppressive regime of Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, and George W. Bush. Former United States Attorney, and Deputy Attorney General, James Comey testified two weeks ago before the Senate Judiciary Committee detailing the bald-faced attempt in 2004 by then-White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales and Chief of Staff Andrew Card to fraudulently get Attorney General John Ashcroft, laying seriously ill in a Washington hospital, to sign off on the National Security Agency’s warrantless eavesdropping activities.

Now, last week, Monica Goodling, only after receiving a grant of immunity from prosecution, after two months of resistance, finally came forward to testify before a House Committee also investigating the firings. Goodling, admitted, “I may have gone too far in asking political questions of applicants for career positions and I may have taken inappropriate political considerations into account.”

Goodling, 33 was the Justice Department’s White House liaison. Ms. Goodling, generally perceived as a tough Conservative, had gone to work at the Justice Department in 2002, having previously worked for the Republican
National Committee as an “opposition researcher,” one whose job it was to gather dirt on the opponent. Although a lawyer, Goodling had absolutely no prosecutorial experience. Nevertheless she quickly moved into a position of power over who would be hired, and promoted, throughout the Justice Department.

Despite the grant of immunity, Ms. Goodling had many memory lapses regarding issues she was particularly uncomfortable about. We find one thing, however, that she did admit, particularly disturbing. Her admission that she weighed the hiring and promotional prospects of Justice Department applicants, and employees, against their political affiliations is the more significant, and alarming, given the fact that Goodling is an avowed Christian Fundamentalist whose probings were not merely into politics but into religious beliefs. She is a disciple of the Religious Right, a movement that persists in wrapping political philosophy with religion, and whose corruptive, covert activities apparently reached far deeper into the workings of government, under the Bush Administration, than mere “Faith Based Initiatives.”

We would encourage Congress to take this investigation wherever it leads. Each and every individual involved, from Alberto Gonzales on down, must be purged from the Department of Justice, if the confidence of the American People is to be restored, and the agency’s name is to be regarded as anything more
than an oxymoron.