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.
"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 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 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.
As I understood it, he was charged with perjury because what he said wasn’t true. In essense, she’s asserting that she can’t testify without lying. They are implying that the Democrats will make her into a liar no matter what she says because they’re evil liberals and that’s what evil liberals do, and so the correct thing is of course to not testify.. I say that this is a fundamental issue, and that Congress should press the point just like Fitzgerald did with Judith Miller and Matthew Cooper. If she won’t answer questions, hi-ho, hi-ho, it’s off to jail she go…
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