OK, I want the consensus on 2 questions re: Goodling--

[Jackpine Radical]

1) Did her testimony put any major holes in the hull of the Ship of State?

2) Did her minimal and questionable performance blow her immunity?

Inquiring minds...

[rucky]

1. Yes, plese inform us working stiffs. ..

so I don't have to go through 18 threads of blow-by-blow coverage.

[napi21]

2. I think she confirmed Gonzo's testimony as false, and

as far as I can tell, she was very careful not to lie, which is the only think that would have blown her immunity. Most of what she said was couched with the words "as I recall, or I don't remember exact words, but.

[seemslikeadream]

3. We Didn't Talk about What The Reasons Were

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/003285.php

Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ) wanted to know if Goodling knew if there were any improper (in the attorney general's narrow sense of the term) reason for the firings. Her answer was less than a ringing endorsement of the firings.

Franks: Did you at any time at your stay at the Justice Department ever seek to prevent or interfere with or affect or influence any particular case or any effort to change the outcome of justice that is the predicate for your agency by hiring or firing or threatening to do so any person or any of these U.S. attorneys that are under discussion?
Goodling: I certainly did not.

Franks: Do you know of anyone in the department or the administration that did?

Goodling: I don’t recall anybody ever saying anything like that. I just don’t. I can’t testify to what other people were thinking and I can’t testify to what other people may have been thinking that they didn’t say. We didn’t talk about what the reasons were, other than Mr. Bogden, at least in conversations I was in, until after it was in progress, and I never heard anybody say anything like that.


Funny: everyone seems to have kept the reasons for the firings to themselves until after they occurred. That's an odd way to have a "consensus based process," as Kyle Sampson insists that it was. What might people have been "thinking that they didn't say?"

[JDPriestly]

7. I thought that -- by elimination -- she suggested that the White House was the

source of the list of the attorneys to be fired. She objected to a couple of the names, but they stayed on the list. She tied a couple of voter related issues to the firings -- albeit inadvertently. One of the attorneys was overly involved in work regarding Native American issues, and another, Griffin, was appointed after having had to do with the caging lists.

I think her testimony was pretty bad for McNulty and Gonzales. She left no question that Gonzales lied and that both McNulty and Gonzales were less than fully forthcoming to Congress in their testimony.

An attorney will know where to go with this stuff. Lungren recognized the perils ahead. The other bozo Republicans did not seem to be listening or did not understand what was happening.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

4. No, holes, large dents.

She sank the SS McNulty, but that's just a dinghy that's been left behind the Ship of State.

The largest dent was fired by the 16" Admission of Political Motives in Firing.

2. Quite possibly. She called McNulty a perjurer, now McNulty's calling her a perjurer. Obviously some, probably both are perjurerizing.

[benddem]

5. she called McNulty a liar

and she hasn't got much of a memory either.

[etherealtruth]

6. I don't recall

... nor does Ms. Goodling

[KoKo]

8. Most significant thing that I heard was that Gonzo was trying to Intimidate Her

as a Witness by chatting her up to get their "stories on the same page."

I guess that fact alone was enough to give her immunity...but it's kind of debatable what the "Hoo Ha" about her was about.

BTW: she also called McNulty a Liar...but McNulty is already under Chuck Schumer's wing...so I don't think that revelation will go very far.

I'm waiting to see what "Next Hurrah's, Marcy Wheeler" will add to this before I come to a conclusion, though. Marcy is really good at parsing out stuff the rest of us miss when we watch these hearings.

:shrug:

Another BTW: What's wrong with Conyers...that he seems so "out of it" having to have other members cue him in when the "time" has elapsed and disappering in the middle of the hearing when Monica revealed the Gonzo "intimidation."

Conyers is not seeming "up to speed" these days. Is he ill? A family problem he's focused on? :wtf:

[Stinky The Clown]

9. Conyers .....

I noticed exactly what you did about Conyers. I'm worried. He's 78 years old. I hope to everything that's dear that he's not getting (physically, not politically) like Reagan.