BEHIND THE HEADLINES
How Monica Goodling turned zealotry into a political crime
As hearings begin, senators wonder who guided an ideological neophyte’s assault on the Justice Department’s integrity.
WASHINGTON — Fresh from her graduation from one of the nation’s low-ranking law schools and a stint at the Republican National Committee digging for dirt about Democrats, Monica M. Goodling, then 31, found herself passing judgment on the government’s top lawyers.
In the course of two years, she:
• Chose to promote a Republican with no counterterrorism experience over the Buffalo-based attorney who prosecuted the Lackawanna Six, all because the attorney was married to a prominent Democrat.
• Vetted promotion prospects for nonpolitical positions on the basis of her political views on the key issues she described in notes as “God, guns + gays.”
• Asked would-be Justice Department job applicants: “What is it about George W. Bush that makes you want to serve him?”
And a day after a scathing internal report showed that Goodling broke the law that aims to keep politics out of the hiring of the nation’s federal prosecutors and immigration judges, lawmakers wondered how such an ideological neophyte could have garnered so much power and misused it so badly.
“It is crystal clear that the law was broken,” said Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., a key member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. “But since it is unlikely that Monica Goodling acted on her own, the question is: How many others were involved? We will look for every way possible to hold the appropriate people accountable.”
That effort starts today, in a Judiciary Committee hearing where the Justice Department’s inspector general will discuss the report that stands to make Goodling infamous.
Congressional investigations on both sides of Capitol Hill are likely to focus in part on two career government lawyers who work in the Western District of New York: William J. Hochul Jr. of the Buffalo office and John Kelly of Rochester.
They were among more than a dozen government lawyers cited anonymously in the report as victims of the Bush administration’s attempts, spearheaded by Goodling, to make the Justice Department as ideologically conservative as possible.
Goodling rejected Hochul’s application for a top counterterrorism post because he is married to a top Democrat, Erie County Clerk Kathleen C. Hochul.
And Goodling rejected Kelly for a top position at the Executive Office of U.S. Attorneys because he was a “political infant” who wasn’t involved enough in Republican political campaigns.
Now, though, lawmakers will turn a sharp eye on Goodling, and the unusual background and clout she brought to what were, on paper, mid-level bureaucratic jobs at the Justice Department.
Historically, even the political appointees at the Justice Department have sterling resumes, rife with accomplishments at Ivy League-caliber universities.
But Monica Goodling came from a different place. A native of York Haven, in south-central Pennsylvania, she graduated from nearby Messiah College in 1995 and then went on to law school, first at American University, and then transferring to Regent University, where she got her degree.
Founded by the Rev. Pat Robertson, Regent is ranked in the bottom tier of the nation’s law schools by U. S. News & World Report magazine. But it is a destination of choice for young evangelical Christians hoping to make their political mark.
“I want to leave the world a better place than I found it,” Goodling said on her Web site while at Regent in 1997. “Tough assignment, but, worth a try.”
That Web site also includes a set of links called “The Right Side,” which includes the conservative Federalist Society and the Family Research Council.
Goodling’s political leanings made her a natural fit at the Republican National Committee, where she did “opposition research” — that is, dirt-digging — from 1999 to 2002.
She went from there to the Justice Department, where she first served in the public affairs office until Mary Beth Buchanan, then the head of the Office of U. S. Attorneys, brought her to that office in early 2005 — shortly before Michael A. Battle, the former U. S. attorney in Buffalo, succeeded Buchanan.
As deputy director of that office, and later as the attorney general’s White House liaison, Goodling vetted candidates for high-level, presumably nonpartisan jobs at the Justice Department, the report said.
She told a congressional committee last year that she did Internet searches on job applicants, and the report shows that she used a standard search method left over by her predecessor that included terms such as “gay,” “Democrat,” “Florida recount” and “spotted owl” in conjunction with the applicant’s name.
Goodling also had an unconventional interviewing style for candidates for the supposedly nonpolitical jobs. According to the report, she asked them questions such as “Why are you a Republican?” and “Aside from the president, give us an example of someone currently or recently in public service who you admire.”
And when one applicant named Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Goodling frowned and said: “But she’s pro-choice,” the report said.
This vetting style surely meant that Hochul’s choice for a top counterterrorism slot was doomed. After all, not only was he married to a prominent Democrat in Western New York, he had been registered as a Democrat and as an independent, but not as a Republican.
Sources close to Hochul said it’s ironic that he was nixed for political reasons, though, because he’s a tough prosecutor who has fully supported President Bush’s aggressive approach to combating terrorism.
“They lost the chance to get a great prosecutor,” said Peter J. Ahearn, former special agent in charge of the FBI office in Buffalo. “There is no question about his ability, his reputation, his experience. It was a loss that he didn’t get this.”
Rep. Brian Higgins, D-Buffalo, agreed. “His reputation is that of being a highly professional, aggressive terrorism prosecutor,” he said.
“I’m angry,” said Rep. Louise M. Slaughter, D-Fairport. “The Justice Department is really the crown jewel of our democracy, and I’ve never seen such political edicts coming from it.”
Meanwhile, the Bush administration, in essence, admitted the error of its ways.
“I have said many times, both to members of the public and to department employees, it is neither permissible nor acceptable to consider political affiliations in the hiring of career department employees,” said Michael B. Mukasey, who succeeded Alberto R. Gonzales as attorney general after the controversy over the department’s politically motivated firing of U. S. attorneys erupted last year.
Ahearn said that he has seen political interference at the Justice Department coming from both Democratic and Republican administrations but that “this crosses the line.”
Lawmakers said they were particular perplexed that someone of Goodling’s background and lack of experience could be put into such a position of authority — and vowed that the hearings will get to the heart of how it happened.
“The [Justice Department] should be serving the American people rather than a political party,” said Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N. Y. “The Bush administration has repeatedly abused the public’s trust, and shining a light on these unlawful hiring practices is a critical step toward stopping them from happening again.”
