Letters to the Editor
-
Turn out the lights...
...the party's over. It's gonna be a long hot summer for the bushanistas...
-
Good.
The adults are back in charge now.
-
This is a turning point
It's dangerous to try to identify events that are important turning points, right in the midst of a crisis -- sometimes you do need to wait for further events to unfold, or even the longer historical perspective. Some notable ones that come to mind are Walter Cronkite's turning against the Vietnam War on the CBS Evening News, and Alexander Butterfield's revelation that tape recordings existed of Nixon's Oval Office operations.
But THIS is going to be interesting -- first the legal battle over Goodling's testimony (a lost cause, if they try to invoke executive privilege), followed by unearthing the mother lode of truth it seems obvious she's protecting.
-
Don't pop the champaigne corks yet
Personally I think she'll lie under oath and take the blame for everything now that she has immunity : "It was all my idea, it did it".
The Democrats need to make it clear that any perjury will nullify her immunity.
-
Or else . . .
I'll bet she accidently falls out of a high window before she gets to testify.
-
Sure, she still might lie...
...but if Goodling planned to lie all along, why would she draw attention to herself by taking the Fifth? If this were all planned, surely the idea of granting immunity occurred to the planners, whoever they might be!
"Republican Amnesia" has been the standard plea throughout all recent administration controversies, and so far it's worked. No reason to think this staffer would be excluded from the game plan everyone else has stuck to until now -- unless she were really looking to cover her OWN rear end, rather then protect someone else.
The day she sits that rear end down in a Congressional witness chair to testify under oath will be a Day to Remember!
-
What the hell?
Why are there so many obstacles to this woman getting in front of the Senate? Why so many formalities? The DOJ gets to object? The target of an investigation has a say in who testifies and who doesn't? What is up with that??
Grrrr...
-
@wysiwyg
That was my first thought, too (after being incensed that getting MG under the lights was going to take so damn long): now all she has to do is fall on her sword. But how is that going to work? A lawyer with second-rate training and no experience making huge decisions, firing AGs? That won't reflect well on anyone, not even Rove.
-
@Jim
Two words: Michael Brown.
Can't forget the whole loyalty vs competence thing.
As for the time it will take - I say let her sweat for a while. It'll give her a chance to think about the consequences of being caught perjuring herself.
-
Legal Battle?
I'm not sure the Justice Department will have much of a leg to stand on in arguing that Monica Goodling shouldn't testify considering that the Attorney General already testified about the matter under oath, televised and with a transcript.
-
Afraid of Being "Left Behind"
Remember that in the twisted contours of her limited, fundamentalist worldview, Monica is probably more afraid of being "left behind" while her Messiah and Regency classmates are Raptured upwards than she is of serving a few months in prison for contempt of Congress.
Remember also that she has high-priced legal advice paid for by RNC and corporatist money. Monica's lawyers are unlikely to put her personal best interests above their imperative to shield the White House, notably Karl Rove, F. Scott Jennings, and Harriet Miers, from criminal charges.
Unless someone can convince Monica that it is both legal and righteous to "render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's"--in this case honest answers to questions from the Senators--even with a grant of immunity she will merely sit before the Senate Juciary Committee to invoke the Fifth Amendment or to ape her boss's feigned lack of recollection.
Monica could very well actively seek legal martyrdom to serve her earthly lords and masters, for in her mind she has likely conflated their crimes and deceptions with her fundamentalist conviction that she and they were doing God's will to defy worldy forces of evil. As with all fanatics and ideologues, Monica's desired ends would justify in her mind the most illegal and monstrous of deeds.
And to think that such medieval "loyal Bushies" have been methodically seeded in virtually every federal department and agency!
Demon seed, indeed.