(Monica Goodling's) Lawyer compares criticism of Justice official to McCarthyism

[sabra]

Source: CNN

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The lawyer for a Justice Department official who has invoked the Fifth Amendment over the firings assailed congressional criticism of her decision Wednesday, comparing it to the abuses of former Sen. Joseph McCarthy.

A spokesman for the House Judiciary Committee called the comparison "bizarre and overheated" and questioned whether the official, Monica Goodling, has legal grounds to take the Fifth.

Also Wednesday, one of the fired prosecutors said that a federal watchdog agency is investigating whether he was punished for missing work to serve in the Navy Reserve.

...

Dowd wrote that McNulty's account -- that Goodling had helped prepare inaccurate testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee -- was "sufficient predicate" for her to take the Fifth, "regardless of whether Mr. McNulty's allegation is factually correct -- which it is not."


Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/04/05/fired.attorneys/

[enough]

1. A very good response to this by Jesselyn Radack at dKos

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/4/5/6518/92398

snip>

Let me tell you something about McCarthyism, Ms. Goodling.

McCarthyism isn't about giving you the right to testify and you incorrectly invoking the Fifth Amendment. A little Law School 101: The Fifth Amendment is designed to protect you from implicating yourself regarding past conduct, not because you think that your very act of testilying will be a crime. It's funny how Bush et al. are so quick to invoke their own constitutional rights when they've infringed and/or jettisoned everyone else's!

And as for McCarthyism, the best example is this Administration's behavior during the past six years. It has rounded up hundreds of Arab and Muslim men based on racial and ethnic profiling and bogus material witness warrants; kept 500+ people in the legal black hole otherwise known a Guantanamo bay; held people, including American citizens, without charge, conviction or judicial review; reversed the usual presumption into a bastardized "guilty until proven innocent" standard; denied due process under the inaply-named Patriot Act; conducted secret trials; tortured; eavesdropped on American's phone calls; wiretapped citizens without warrant; put anti-war protesters and political dissidents on terrorist watch lists; resurrected long-interred relics of the McCarthy era like denying entry to aliens for pure speech; and gone on witch-hunts and missions of personal destruction that make Joseph McCarthy look like Floyd Abrams. Terrorism is the new Communism.

and more>

[leQ]

6. HERE HERE!!

what a wonderful way of putting this administration into a little brown bottle and labeling it so.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

12. That's been the misadministration's game all along...

Create government policies reminiscent of Nazi Germany, then slap the "Hitler" label on Dems.
Trample civil rights for the sake of "Freedom", and accuse those who reject their policies of "hating America".
Now it's McCarthyism.

These thugs are guilty of the worst kind of treason. Not only do they strive to enslave the country, they do it in the name of Liberty.

Every last sonofabitch among them should be impeached for being traitors.

[MissMillie]

2. I thought she was exercising her right to remain silent

if so, that's what she should do.

Olbermann's going to have fun w/ her tonight.

[Kikosexy2]

3. Subpoena..

the skank and throw her in jail...she knows she's guilty of a crime...so save us all the time and trouble and do this as quick as possible...Susan McDougal she's definitely not...

[MissMillie]

7. yes, I'm ok w/ that

I'm just saying... she said she wasn't going to talk, and now she's criticizing.

[Kikosexy2]

8. See what the ...

Pat Robertson School of Law teaches you...what a tool...

[RedEarth]

4. Not surprised...this is the right wing normal MO....

soon they will be comparing it to Hitler and the Gestapo.

[bemildred]

5. Bemildred compares government stonewalling to Watergate.

Analogies are a dime a dozen. Good ones take more effort. I'm sure this weasel would have compared them to Nazis if he thought he could make it work. What distinguised McCarthy was the name-calling and the absence of facts. The Congress-critters have made NO accusations, called no names, and are looking for facts.

[MissMillie]

9. ???????

"Goodling's decision 'can in no way be interpreted to suggest that Ms. Goodling herself participated in any criminal activity,' he wrote in a letter to lawmakers investigating the firings."

Then why take the 5th?

[JPZenger]

10. Monica Grad of Pat Robertson's Law School

Monica Goodling is a distinguished graduate of Pat Robertson's own law school - Regent University.

"For tomorrow's readings, study pages 250 to 350 from the Book of Pat."

[Strelnikov_]

15. If I were Ms Goodling I think I would be dumping the Regent U lawyers

for some ball busting meat eaters from Harvard or Columbia.

These Regent U types kinda remind me of Titus Pullo's defense team . . .

[anotherdrew]

11. but wait, I thought the new rethug line was that McCarthyism was good?

they're all mixed up

[truebrit71]

13. Didn't Mann Coulter say that McCarthy was a hero?

Boy these wingnuts just can't seem to keep things straight can they?

[originalpckelly]

14. I guess it suits, she's a red connie!

5th amendment connie.

[Peace Patriot]

16. Yup, the Republicons are just like the "communists" in the 1950s--they've

infiltrated our government even to its highest echelons with an anti-democratic ideology, they disguise their ideology with phony labels like "Christian" or "patriotic"--when they mean just the opposite--they've wormed their way into our free press and are poisoning peoples' minds with editorials and slantings of the news that carry hidden agendas, they've even gained positions as teachers and school board members, where they work to brainwash young children with their vile ideas, they can be found in every home, in every closet and under every bed in America, and they need to be hunted down, and driven from America's homes and workplaces and government offices, and sent back to...Saudi Arabia...

Only this time it's true. The "communist conspiracy" did not exist. It was a figment of Joe McCarthy's paranoid imagination. But the fascist conspiracy to rule over the rest of us--with the narrow, repressive, anti-democratic views of a tiny minority in league with corporate predators and war profiteers, and to steal our elections, and to destroy all of our democratic institutions and traditions, and to force us into an unjust, heinous war, and to inflict rightwing religion on a majority that rejects it, in violation of the most basic law of the land--is quite real. We see its impacts everyday in the nutso policies of the Bush Junta, and in its echo chamber of the corporate media. We see it in the carnage in Iraq. We see it in the torture and indefinite detention in Guantanamo Bay. We see it in the craziness of teachers having to defend teaching real science. We see it in the vast corruption and massive thievery of the Bush Junta--so incredibly destructive of our national security. We see it in our inability to dislodge extraordinarily corrupt office holders, and our inability to influence the war profiteering corporate news monopolies toward more balanced news and opinion. They are here. They have infiltrated. They are entrenched. And in their private-channel emails, they were plotting the takeover of our justice system, so that no one could prosecute them for their crimes, and so that they could cover up yet more stolen elections.

The rightwing has BECOME the "communist conspiracy." They have become that which they railed against, in their torrid imaginations, in the 1950s and through the 1980s. They have become UNAMERICAN--i.e. desirous of imposing their ideas on the rest of us without debate, by devious means or by force.

So, yeah, if Congressional committees want to give them a tough going over, I'd be for it. But we don't have to make things up, like McCarthy did. All we have to do is stick to the facts and they're toast.

And the reason they don't like the sound of that, is that they know what jerks they've been.

The karma has come back, and its biting them in the ass. Sweet karma!

[Marnieworld]

17. So just grant her immunity on that one specific, alleged, issue

Then she can testify completely unless there are other crimes right?

What are they hiding?

[truthisfreedom]

18. Methinks they doth protest too much!

God, the distractions they feel compelled to construct in order to avoid answering simple questions about violating the Hatch act! It's amazing! They squeal like they're being smashed in a car crusher but they refuse to discuss their actions truthfully.