A House committee voted Wednesday to grant immunity to Monica Goodling, a key aide to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales during the firings of eight U.S. attorneys. She had refused to testify, invoking her Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination. The 32-6 vote by the House Judiciary Committee surpassed the two-thirds majority required to grant a witness immunity from prosecution. A separate vote to authorize a subpoena for Goodling passed by voice vote. The House panel’s action was one of several scheduled committee votes pertaining to subpoenas for Bush administration officials, among them Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, whom lawmakers want to question about the administration’s now-discredited claim that Iraq was seeking uranium from Africa – used in part to justify the war against Iraq.
But House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., postponed a vote on issuing a subpoena to former White House chief of staff Andrew Card on the same issue, saying White House Counsel Fred Fielding had made a compromise proposal worth pursuing. Democrats say they want to force into the open the story of why the prosecutors were fired and whether they were singled out to influence corruption cases. Republicans point out that Gonzales survived a brutal Senate hearing last week with President Bush’s support and no evidence of wrongdoing in the prosecutors firings.
Gonzales, meanwhile, was busy mending fences Wednesday. He was scheduled to return to Capitol Hill to meet with a key critic, Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark., who has complained that Gonzales was not truthful with him over the dismissal of Bud Cummins, the former U.S. attorney in Little Rock, Ark. The Judiciary committee’s vote instructs a House lawyer to seek an immunity grant for Goodling from a federal court. The grant would not take effect unless Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., chooses to issue Goodling a subpoena compelling her to testify, Conyers said.
Goodling and her lawyer have invoked her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, saying they believe Democrats have set a perjury trap for her. Conyers said Wednesday he hopes Goodling changes her mind and voluntarily tells the committee her story. "I do not propose this step lightly," Conyers told the panel. "If we learn something new in the course of our investigation … we can always stop the process before the court issues an order."
"Ms. Goodling appears to be a key witness for us, as to any possible undue influence or improper interference, and as to any internal discussions as to how forthcoming to be to Congress," Judiciary Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.) said at a morning committee meeting.
The committee also approved a subpoena for Goodling’s testimony. Under the deal — known in legal parlance as "limited-use immunity" — Goodling could not be prosecuted for anything she truthfully tells Congress. Some Democrats have questioned whether prior testimony to Congress by some senior Justice officials, such as Deputy Attorney General Paul J. McNulty, amounted to knowingly making false statements to Congress. McNulty has acknowledged several misstatements in his testimony two months ago on the reasons for the prosecutor dismissals.
And frankly, that picture up in the right hand corner worries me. Monica Goodling has been out of Law School for nine years, only a few of which have been involved with "the law." She’s mostly been a Republican Operative in administrative political jobs – assistant to the big guys. The only thing that explains her being in such a top level job is that she’s competent and loyal, kind of cute – sort of a "my gal Sal" type. I’m worried that she’s hooked on power. Being loyal in this Administration is synonymous with an almost "medical immunity" against everyday, common sense morality. She strikes me as the kind of person who could rationalize moral lapses as justified in light of the evil sodomizing, abortion-promoting, vote-frauding straw men her handlers make Democrats, Liberals, or Progressives out to be – that Machiavellian twist promoted by the Dobson, Falwell, Robertson Christianity and the Bush, Cheney, Rove Fascism.
I would suggest these Congressmen interview her in private first. Let her Lawyer be there if she wants. The best way to "un-Demonize" themselves would be to show her in some kind of personal interview that she is dealing with patriotic, real human beings rather that fire-breathing creatures from the Evil Empire. It gives her time to recover from the cognitive dissonance that will surely develop if her stereotypes turn out to be untrue. She’s important, because she knows what happened – all of it. She needs to be treated as a girl who has gone astray rather than a beast from the Evil Empire. 
Kyle Sampson is some mother’s son, and Monica Goodling is some parent’s child. If I’m wrong about that and she’s simply a wolf in sheep’s clothing – it doesn’t matter how she’s treated.
As a matter of fact, I expect that’s true of all of them. They’ve been so caught up in the atmosphere "inside" that they need exposure to the real world before being questioned. "Grilling" them just confirms their mind-set – persecuted martyrs on a "holy crusade."
Some, however, think otherwise [and I can’t really argue with their frustration]:
Monica Goodling will soon get immunity to come clean with Congress. So much for this evangelical beacon of righteousness taking the Fifth. Let’s see if Monica can answer the following questions:
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