- gahzette.blogspot.com
- Monica Goodling
The gears of justice grind slowly, but …
A Virginia website, the Virginia Lawyers Weekly, reports on a public reprimand given by the Virginia State Bar to Monica Goodling, a key figure in U.S. Attorneygate and other efforts by the Bush White House to politicize the Justice Department.
Local interest? You bet. Goodling was hip-deep in the smear (and ensuing coverup of same) of U.S. Attorney Bud Cummins of Little Rock. The Bush White House ousted him to give the career-building platform to Karl Rove’s political hitman and putative vote cager, Tim Griffin. U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor kept Griffin out of the permanent job, but it didn’t stop Griffin’s ascendancy to Congress, from which he is believed to be planning a get-even run against Pryor in 2014. (More here on Griffin-Goodling communications.)
The Law Weekly reported that the Virginia Bar decided Goodling had violated ethics rules by “a criminal or deliberately wrongful act” that reflected adversely on her “honesty, trustworthiness or fitness to practice law.”
She admitted applying a political litmus test on Justice Department career jobs while working as White House liaison to the attorney general. She testified under an immunity grant.
She had little experience when hired as a graduate of Pat Robertson’s Regent University. She’s been described as deeply religious and conservative and intent on hiring people of like mind for Justice. Cummins described her once as “inexperienced, way too naïve and a little overzealous.”