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An In Depth Look at Monica Goodling

There's an in depth profile of Monica Goodling at Law.com today.

It begins with a discussion of her taking the 5th (the only smart position in my opinion) but continues in the section "Born for the Job" with connections to Mark Corallo, Barbara Comstock and the rest of the cabal.

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.

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."

She even went along on Ashcroft's traveling road shows.

More...

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.

Her brownies? I wonder what was in them?

Update: More from Digby.

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  • Display: Sort:
    PSN benchmark used to purge Lam....but others? (5.00 / 1) (#5)
    by avahome on Mon Apr 02, 2007 at 02:46:38 PM EST
    Perhaps Monica can enlighten us on this:

    Were US Attorneys purged because they did not meet PSN Benchmarks? (a re-occurring buzz word throughout this purge - Project Safe Neighborhoods)

    http://scoop.epluribusmedia.org/story/2007/4/2/145711/1437

    Monica (none / 0) (#1)
    by Angel on Mon Apr 02, 2007 at 01:14:55 PM EST
    It was kool-aid, of course.

    Monica worked with (none / 0) (#2)
    by ding7777 on Mon Apr 02, 2007 at 01:29:56 PM EST
    Mary Beth Buchanan, the U.S. Attorney in Pittsburgh, who's 84 indictments against Dr. Cyril H. Wecht, now looks suspect.  

    what? (none / 0) (#3)
    by cpinva on Mon Apr 02, 2007 at 01:30:04 PM EST
    you think her brownies explain ashcroft's loonyness?

    maybe they calmed him and kept him in line (none / 0) (#4)
    by scribe on Mon Apr 02, 2007 at 01:46:17 PM EST
    with civilized norms, or at least spared us from his singing.

    Deliver me, O Lord, from the evil man: preserve me from the violent man;  
    Which imagine mischiefs in their heart; continually are they gathered together for war.  
    They have sharpened their tongues like a serpent; adders' poison is under their lips.
    Ps 140:1-3

    Sounds like the Psalmist described a joint convention of Rove's acolytes and PNAC.

    Here's LMP's reason for pleading the Fifth, from Digby (quoted at FDL)

    Many of us were told to pipe down when we complained that the Justice Department and the NSA had been involved in spying on Americans with no oversight. But now that we know that Barbara Comstock, Monica Goodling and Tim Griffin, Karl Rove's personal smear artists, were promoted to the highest reaches of the federal police agencies with access to records
    on their political opponents and every other American, then it's clear that we weren't suspicious enough. At this point, I think we have to assume that with these people in charge and having the use of all the new powers of the Patriot Act, there have been no limits at all on the partisan, political use of the government's investigative powers.

    I am no longer confused about why Monica Goodling took the fifth. I have little doubt that there are many crimes that took place and she's not taking any chances. This is bigger than the US Attorney scandal.  (my emphasis)

    I agree.

    Surely Monica knows the following quote, though I doubt she, in her evident self-righteousness, ever thought she was the one we'd need deliverance from:

    Deliver my soul, O Lord, from lying lips, and from a deceitful tongue.  
    What shall be given unto thee? or what shall be done unto thee, thou false tongue?  
    Sharp arrows of the mighty, with coals of juniper.  
    Psalms 120:2-4

    This, though, she doubtless could say about herself:

    My soul hath long dwelt with him that hateth peace.

    Psalms 120:6

    Yours certainly has, LMP.

    Parent