The parts of Monica Goodling's testimony that stood out to me most yesterday: 1) detailing how McNulty misled Congress with "incomplete or inaccurate" testimony on 2/6/07 that was "not fully candid" and 2) her admission to her part in politicizing the hiring of career folks at the Justice Department.
After the 25th time, I stopped counting the occasions that Monica Goodling, former Senior Counsel and White House Liaison to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, couldn't "remember" or "recall," or had "no knowledge" or "forgotten." On certain key points, she was crystal clear. She had many "concerns" about former Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty's testimony to Congress; in particular, she said that, contrary to his assertions, she didn't withhold information in prepping him and he didn't communicate all that he knew.
She specifically said that McNulty diminished the role of White House involvement in the White House's signing-off of the prosecutor purge plan. He was so bent on minimizing the White House, that after dragging her to a closed-door Senate briefing he gave on the subject, he sent her back to the Justice Department because he was afraid her presence would trigger or exacerbate congressional inquiry into the White House's role since she was the liaison.
He "failed to disclose" his knowledge of Tim Griffin, Rove's protege, as a replacement for ousted U.S. Attorney Bud Cummins. She also said McNulty was aware of Griffin's "caging" issue (she described "caging" innocently as a direct mail term for separating good addresses from bad, but its really a much more sinister vote-fixing scheme that BBC investigative reporter Greg Palast broke, which involved the Bush campaign effort to challenge, on false evidence, the right to vote of some 70,000 African-Americans, homeless men, students, and soldiers overseas. All were legal voters who were not at a home address. Nonetheless, letters were sent "Do Not Forward" to voters at home addresses, knowing they weren't there. When the letters were returned to sender--"caged"--the voter’s right to vote was challenged.)
Finally, she said McNulty's testimony about the California selection commission working "very well" was not accurate.
Like everyone else, she denied coming up with the hit list for the prosecutor purge, but in a stunning admission (this is where the immunity kicks in), admitted to asking political questions to career position applicants, said this was wrong ("I know I crossed the line of the civil service rules")--and, I would add, the law (see, e.g., the Hatch Act--claimed she didn't mean to, and apologized. This is one of the first times we have someone with direct, first-hand knowledge speaking openly about the politicization of the career ranks at Justice from top to bottom. Despite the FBI's routine and thorough background checks, she Googled candidates, ran their names through Republican political websites and sometimes looked up their political donations--illegal criteria to consider when hiring career government employees (as opposed to Schedule C political appointees).