Do You Know Monica Goodling?

If so, we’d love to hear from you — please email us (subject line: “Monica Goodling”). Now that Goodling, who served as the Justice Department’s White House liaison (she’s currently on leave), has announced her intention to invoke the Fifth Amendment privilege, the public is hungry for more details about this mystery woman of the DOJ.
So what we do know about Monica Goodling — besides her weakness for Ralph Lauren clothing and red plastic cups?
Dan Froomkin, over at White House Watch, offers up a detailed and comprehensive write-up (with numerous links). He explains why Beltway insiders are once again fixated on a young woman named Monica:

Will another presidency be tripped up by another Monica?

Juries in criminal cases are sternly lectured not to assume guilt when a defendant takes the Fifth. It is, after all, a Constitutional right.

But when a fairly minor player in what had heretofore not been considered a criminal investigation suddenly admits that she faces legal jeopardy if she tells the truth to a Congressional panel? Well, in that case, wild speculation is an inevitable and appropriate reaction.

The WSJ Law Blog also has a nice round-up:

Who is Monica Goodling? She’s a White House liaison for AG Alberto Gonzales and is currently on leave. Emails released by the DOJ last week showed she played a central role in the dismissals. Thanks to this story, we also know that she’s 33, a 1995 graduate Messiah College in Grantham, Pa., and received her law degree at Regent University, the Virginia Beach, Va. school founded by Yale Law School graduate Pat Robertson.

Such credentials led one ATL commenter to wonder:

What I want to know is how a 1999 graduate of the purported “law school” at a purported “university” founded by Pat Robertson has acquired the title of “Senior Counsel” to this nation’s Attorney General.

More on Monica, after the jump.

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That’s the great mystery here. Clearly Monica Goodling has some heavy-duty political connections. But does anyone know who her patron(s) in the Bush Administration might be?
From a commenter, here’s one (rather rude) theory:

how [did] a hack like monica goodling who went to some fake-ass law school got a doj job? i guess all loyola 2l has to do is suck GWB’s buddies off…

We tend to doubt this, for the reasons expressed in this rebuttal:

She went to Regent, so I doubt she got where she was by giving BJs. Pat Robertson (and Jesus) wouldn’t like that. Besides, I think you have your administrations confused.

Also check out the excellent McClatchy profile of Monica Goodling:

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Goodling, 33, is a 1995 graduate Messiah College in Grantham, Pa., an institution that describes itself as “committed to embracing an evangelical spirit.”

Ah, the “evangelical spirit.” So that’s what they call the Fifth Amendment these days.
(As for the skepticism we expressed yesterday towards Goodling’s invocation of the Fifth Amendment privilege, we’re in good company. In addition to Dan Froomkin, the brilliant Professor Orin Kerr also has his doubts.)
Bush’s Monica Problem [Washington Post / White House Watch]
The U.S. Attorney Mess: Spotlight on Monica Goodling [WSJ Law Blog]
Who is Monica Goodling? [McClatchy Newspapers]
Monica Goodling To Take the Fifth [Volokh Conspiracy]
Earlier: Breaking: Monica’s Lips Are Sealed