Gonzales Aide Monica Goodling Set to Testify

If you can get C-Span3 or watch the streaming video online, it's time for the House Judiciary Committee testimony of Monica Goodling, former top aide to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and principal liason between the Department of Justice and the White House regarding the firing of eight U.S. Attorneys late last year. She is expected to spill the beans after having been granted immunity from prosecution.

Live blogging of her testimony at DailyKos is here.

UPDATE: I listened to Goodling's opening statement. She denies being the principal DOJ-White House conduit or speaking to Karl Rove or Harriet Myers peronally, although she admits communicating with members of their staffs. She denies any knowledge of the actual reasons for the firings (i.e., she can't say whether the reasons she supplied in memos and messages were the reasons actually motivating whoever made the ultimate decision). However, she admits that she went too far by asking about, and taking into account, political views and affiliations in the hiring of new Assistant U.S. Attorneys.

Her voice trembled as she called the DOJ community her "family" and said that it was not her intention to say anything bad about anybody. How did this graduate of Pat Robertson's evangelical Christian law school, Regent University, possibly get hired and promoted four times? Oh, that's right, because she IS a graduate of that school.

Gonzales' Grasp on AG Office Slipping Again

How quickly the conventional wisdom shifts. Just a few weeks ago pundits announced that embattled U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales had weathered the political firestorm surrounding the firing of eight U.S. Attorneys early this year and would cling to his office for the time being. On Friday, Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN) became the sixth GOP Senator to call for Gonzales's resignation, after long hesitating to take that step. Today, the New York Times quotes Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA), the senior Republican on the Judiciary Committee, as saying that Gonzales "might resign rather than face a no-confidence vote in the Senate" perhaps as early as this week. This despite insistence from a Department of Justice spokesman that Gonzales has no intention of resigning, and ridicule by the White House of the no-confidence vote as feature of parliamentary (foreign) governance. An AP story further reports that Specter predicts a sizable number of Republican Senators will oppose Gonzales in that vote, and pointedly notes that the projected vote has failed to draw a public statement of support" from Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY). As for whether Gonzales can effectively lead the Justice Department, McConnell said "that's for the president to decide."

UPDATE: From his ranch in Crawford, Texas today, President Bush signalled his continuing support for Gonzales by describing the no-confidence vote as "pure political theater" and declaring that Gonzales "has done nothing wrong."