Googling Goodling

Monica Goodling, who was senior counsel to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales until she was resigned this week, has become the subject of intense journalistic scrutiny after she responded to a congressional request to testify about shenanigans in the Justice Department by claiming her 5th Amendment right against self-incrimination. Goodling, it turns out, is a wonderful personification of the Bush Administration’s approach to civil servants throughout the federal bureaucracy. Goodling is said to have forced out career attorneys, particularly in the civil rights division, in favor of lawyers more in tune with the Bush Administration--for example, former classmates at televangelist Pat Robertson's Regent University Law School, whose motto is "Christian Leadership to Change the World." As the superb Slate journalist Dahlia Lithwick argues, there's nothing wrong with the Bush Administration trying to change the direction of the Justice Department, but Goodling might want to reconsider whether the Bush agenda and a Christian agenda are synonymous.