Posted on 04/06/2007 2:35:41 PM PDT by Mr. Brightside
Gonzales aide who asserted Fifth resigns
By LARA JAKES JORDAN, Associated Press Writer
9 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - The top aide to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales abruptly quit on Friday, almost two weeks after telling Congress she would not testify about her role in the firings of federal prosecutors.
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"I am hereby submitting my resignation to the office of attorney general," Monica M. Goodling said in a three-sentence letter. There was no immediate reason given, but her refusal to face Congress had intensified a controversy that threatens Gonzales' job.
Asserting her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, Goodling had rejected demands for a private interview with a House committee investigating the firings.
Goodling was senior counsel to Gonzales and was the department's White House liaison before she took a leave amid the uproar over the prosecutors' ousters.
Calling her five-year stint at Justice an honor, Goodling told Gonzales in her letter, "May God bless your richly as you continue your service to America."
Goodling is at the center of the controversy because, as the bridge between the Justice Department and the White House, she may be best suited to explain how deeply Karl Rove and other members of
President Bush's political team might have been involved in the firings. Congress also wants her to testify on Gonzales' role in light of his shifting explanations.
Her resignation comes less than two weeks before Gonzales' own planned testimony to Congress, which may determine his fate as attorney general. Several Republican lawmakers have joined Democrats in calling for his resignation or dismissal over the firings and other matters at Justice.
Goodling's lawyers had asked Rep. John Conyers (news, bio, voting record), chairman of the
House Judiciary Committee, not to compel her to appear at a public hearing knowing of her intention to invoke the Fifth Amendment and refuse to answer questions.
Her lawyers have said such a hearing would be a perjury trap for her. They note allegations that Goodling misled Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty before he testified to Congress about the ousters, causing him to give an incomplete and possibly inaccurate account.
Sen. Charles Schumer (news, bio, voting record), D-N.Y., who is leading an inquiry into the firings, said Goodling had "no choice but to resign," and he noted that she was the third Justice Department official involved in the controversy to step down.
"Attorney General Gonzales' hold on the department gets more tenuous each day," Schumer said in a written statement.
Gonzales is also under fire for the
FBI's improper and in some cases illegal prying into Americans' personal information during terror and spy probes.
This is a good woman.
it never ends with these people....
Interesting??!!
Lara Jakes Jordan is married to veteran Democratic Party operative Jim Jordan, the former executive director of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and manager of Sen. John Kerry's presidential bid.
How do you know?
No. It's sad.
How many Clinton administration officials who asserted the 5th Amendment resigned?
She has been called a “fundie” (as in Christian fundamentalist) by some rabid left-wingers.
If the Bush administration was as smart as the Clinton administration, they would announce this at midnight Friday, after the evening news and well into the weekend.
Then when Monday comes along, they would dismiss the story as being ‘old news.’
Bill could have killed Hillary on a Friday night and gotten away with it.
I love the President and what he is doing to protect the American people and wish a good man like him could have been my CIC while I was playing war.....but I swear...the ole boy and his administration is a communications disaster. He is such a good guy that he really thinks all people have good intentions....when will he figure out that dumbcrats don’t have good intentions??? I still believe that when history is written he will go down as a great President....although an incredibly poor communicator. Then again can any President be a communicator in today’s political climate?
“This is a good woman.”
A loyal member of the Bush administration, who did good work implementing policy and making sure the DOJ did the same.
As such, she is a threat to the Democrats’ plan to effectively run DOJ from under the president with their ‘permanent buraeucracy and the first victim of the Democrats’ lust for revenge/power.
Well, six on a Friday is pretty close to your scenario.
“She has been called a “fundie” (as in Christian fundamentalist) by some rabid left-winger”
Translation: She’s believes in a Christian God. Shudder.
Not when you have 24/7 newsheads picking apart and criticizing every single phrase you utter.
I thought I read a couple of weeks ago that she said back in December that she would be resigning in the spring.... I’ll see if I can find the article. Or maybe this is a different Gonzales aide....
That would mean that as an adult she has attended church at least one time when it wasn't Christmas, Easter, a Funeral or a Wedding. (Gasp!)
I hate to see even the suspicion that a good woman is resigning because of pressure from a rat like Nostrils.
I hope she’s doing this because she chooses to, and not under any kind of pressure from that bumbling idiot Gonzalez.
No, Bush and his administration are NOT "a communications disaster".
I just saw this "reported" on The NBC Nightly "News". They put up a picture of Monica Goodling that made her look like a donut-munching skank. The picture looked worse than the hit pictures they ran of Linda Tripp back during the impeachment wars.
The next "report" they ran was on "global warming"; the piece was pure manipulation from end-to-end.
Hey, RVN AD - if one team is facemasking, clipping, illegal blocking and sucker-punching, is it any WONDER that the other team is losing? No, make that the supposed "referees" who are the ones indulging in the facemasking, etc.
Gosh, I wonder why the Pubbies "can't get their message out"? I don't usually get worked up about the Stupid Party getting its butt kicked by the Cool Party Donks, but what I just saw was blatant.
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