The Talking Dog

May 24, 2007, I Walk Crossed the Line

Thus sayeth Monica Goodling, during testimony before a House committee yesterday. She was referring to her service as a loyal Christianist soldier-bot, duly vetting out well-qualified applicants to the Department of Justice for such crimes as contributing to Democratic candidates, or not being bat-shit right-wing enough to satisfy her Pat Robertson-honed political (though clearly not legal) skills.

She also appears to be trying to throw former Deputy Atty. Gen. Paul McNulty and Gonzales aide Kyle Sampson under the bus, by contending that they attended key meetings (along with Gonzales himself) discussing the U.S. Attorney firing scheme with the White House (i.e. Karl Rove), while she did not.

All amazing. Bruce the Veep observes, correctly, that little here (for a change!) is an actual crime, so much as a long-standing tradition that it is unseemly to subvert administration of justice to political ends... maybe we need a Constitutional Amendment to enshrine all this, lest future Presidents act as fecklessly in this regard as this one. (BTW, don't get me wrong: Sen. Pete Domenici and Congresswoman Heather Wilson should both be facing criminal charges for obstruction of justice... I'm just saying that the White House and Justice Department-- for a change-- did a great deal morally and objectively wrong here, though not necessarily violative of criminal laws).

Ms. Goodling bought herself immunity for her own "line-crossing". Maybe she's not as incompetent as her educational pedigree might lead one to suspect she is...


Comments

Christianist?

Posted by Huh Guy at May 24, 2007 10:19 AM

Christianist. C H R I S T I A N I S T

The analog to the shorthand for "Islamo-fascist" (or "Islamist") for Christiano-fascist (or "Christianist") meaning a religious extremist who advocates violence against non-believers and works for and toward the subversion of civil law, reason and pluralistic society in the interest of installing parochial, theocratic government.

Christianist.

Posted by the talking dog at May 24, 2007 10:29 AM

I thought we saw the last of the Christianists after the Spanish Inquisition. And does this mean that Scientologists are religious extremists who advocate violence against non-believers and work for and toward the subversion of civil law, reason and pluralistic society in the interest of installing parochial, theocratic government (in the name of Tom Cruise)?

Posted by Just Wondering at May 24, 2007 10:28 PM

In her opening testimony yesterday before the House Judiciary Committee, Monica Goodling, the blonde-ling underling to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and Department of Justice Liaison to the White House, dropped The Big One….And the Committee members didn’t even know it.

Goodling testified that Gonzales’ Chief of Staff, Kyle Sampson, perjured himself, lying to the committee in earlier testimony. The lie: Sampson denied Monica had told him about Tim Griffin’s “involvement in ‘caging’ voters” in 2004.


Here’s how caging worked, and along with Griffin’s thoughtful emails themselves you’ll understand it all in no time.

The Bush-Cheney operatives sent hundreds of thousands of letters marked “Do not forward” to voters’ homes. Letters returned (”caged”) were used as evidence to block these voters’ right to cast a ballot on grounds they were registered at phony addresses. Who were the evil fakers? Homeless men, students on vacation and — you got to love this — American soldiers. Oh yeah: most of them are Black voters.

Why weren’t these African-American voters home when the Republican letters arrived? The homeless men were on park benches, the students were on vacation — and the soldiers were overseas. Go to Baghdad, lose your vote. Mission Accomplished.

Posted by Oh ... And Guy at May 24, 2007 10:33 PM

JW--
Pretty much, the answer is yes. But mostly, that's a really stupid question. Just as the Christianists have very little to do with Christ, and the Islamists very little to do with Islam... Scientologists have very little to do with science... other than, perhaps, juridical science.

O and G, why don't you provide the Greg Palast link, in part derived from this interview. Palast's contention is that what Goodling is about is of course tipping everyone off about the great Republican Electoral Steal of 2008, to follow up on similar massive fraud and voter suppression that led the country to "elect" Dubya in 2000 and 2004, despite exit polls and voter intent to the contrary... you know, by criminally cheating. Most interesting, really. Using U.S. Attorneys to bring bogus cases against Democrats, and to look the other way at felonies by Republicans. Nice.

Posted by the talking dog at May 25, 2007 12:29 AM