Crying Will Not Help You Now

Monica Goodling.

"She proceeded for the next, it seemed like forever but it was probably only about 30 or 45 minutes, to bawl her eyes out and say, 'All I ever wanted to do was serve this president and this administration and this department,'" Margolis said of Goodling in his closed-door May 1 interview.

Never mind that the president swears to uphold the Constitution and that is also exactly what the Department of Justice should be doing as well. Via FDL,

"People like Monica … were misguided and didn't get it," said H.E. "Bud" Cummins III, one of the U.S. attorneys dismissed last year. Still, Cummins said, Gonzales and other senior officials deserve the lion's share of the blame. "It is their job to stand up and say, 'No,' " he said in an interview. "There obviously was a failure, no matter whose idea this was, at the top levels of the department to assert independent judgment."…

If she did not understand what her job was then she is also guilty of negligence and no amount of crying will help her now. We need to kill, and not pardon, these GOP zombies so they die for good.

FDL is liveblogging the hearings. Read on.

Knock Knock

Who's there?

Stool pigeon.

Stool pigeon who?

Monica Goodling.

The House Judiciary Committee voted moments ago to grant immunity to Monica Goodling — former counsel to Alberto Gonzales and the Justice Department’s liaison to the White House — and issue a subpoena compelling her to testify. Yesterday, fired U.S. Attorney David Iglesias said he believes that Goodling holds the “keys to the kingdom” in terms of uncovering the roots of the U.S. Attorney purge

Even with Bush's support, Gonzales cannot last much longer.

You Keep Saying That Word, But I Do Not Think It Means What You Think It Means

Taking the 5th.

A party can request a hearing (in federal or state court) to examine whether the party invoking the Fifth has done so properly. Goodling's attorney's letter does not provide a valid basis for invoking the Fifth. You can't invoke the Fifth to avoid perjury charges (or obstructing justice with the selfsame testimony). (I have the cases here, if you want them.) You can't invoke the Fifth because you think the Committee is on a witch hunt. Etc.

Is anybody surprised that this lawyer Bush crony who graduated from Pat Robertson's Regent University does not understand the law?