More on Monica Goodling
In our post from yesterday about Monica Goodling, we asked for insights and tidbits about this high-profile Justice Department lawyer. The post generated an avalanche of comments.
We also received a few emails (although not as many as we might have liked). Here’s one:
I went to high school near Messiah College, and I knew several people named Goodling who went to high school with me. According to U.S. Search, there’s a woman named Monica Marie Goodling who lived in York Haven, PA. The previous congressman from the district including York Haven was Bill Goodling, so she may be distantly related or a granddaughter.
Does anyone know if there’s any relation? We wouldn’t be surprised. It does seem that Monica M. Goodling is well-connected in Republican circles. According to one commenter, she previously worked as a lawyer at the Republican National Committee (RNC). Another claims that she owes her “considerable political mojo” to Karl Rove.
Update: A trusted source tells us that Goodling’s “mojo” comes “not from Karl Rove, but from Barbara Comstock, for whom she worked at the RNC. When Comstock moved to DoJ as head of the Office of Public Affairs, she brought MG with her as her assistant.”
Many of your comments about Monica Goodling were rather harsh. Here’s an email we received that we pass along to add some balance:
I feel compelled to write in, because of the number of people questioning [Monica Goodling’s] intelligence and integrity (though I guess that’s to be expected in a public forum)….Whenever I spend time with her, I am struck by her intelligence, her competence, her dedication to her country, her integrity, and her commitment to her values.
Anyone who knows her at all would not question whether she acted with integrity in this instance. For the people who question how she got her job, she got her job because she works extremely hard and is very good at what she does. I didn’t even know she went to Regent. She is just as smart as most Harvard and Yale grads I know.
We thank our sources for their contributions. Once again, if you have firsthand knowledge of Monica Goodling — as opposed to opinions based on what you’ve read (which we all have) — please drop us a line. Thanks.
DC Picnic Photos [Regent University]
Earlier: Do You Know Monica Goodling?
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Comments
Just because she has a law degree does not mean she was a "lawyer", per se. She's a careerist political mouthpiece, albeit at a legal institution. Her intelligence as a back room political operative "may" be exemplary, but she hasn't demonstrated anything in her career to assume that she is on par as an attorney. Two different games.
Unless any Goodling defenders have any specific examples of her legal acumen or experience, her qualifications as an attorney is suspect. And, being a special AUSA handling traffic ticket matters does not count!
Dopey blonde bum
This is our country.
Pardon my confusion. But are there not enough good jobs out there for graduates of Tier 1 schools? I gather that many of the rather vicious and personal attacks posted on ABL come from people that are possibly either jealous of Mrs. Goodling, rightly so, or possess a deep dislike for the administration. However, there also seems to be a number of the posts from readers astonished (angered?) that someone not from one of the highly regarded schools was able to circumvent elitism that many of these post clearly exhibit.
Why is it that Mrs. Goodling is presumed to either be incompetent or inadequate simply because she attended a non-tier 1 law school? I don’t know much about Regent’s or it’s JD graduates. But I do know that this “She Should Know Her Place” attitude epitomizes the idea of elitism.
What, no comments about the fact that her lawyer is John Dowd, the well-known expert is overboard investigations?
i did not know ms. goodling, but I entered messiah college immediately after she graduated. I also worked on the staff of the Clarion, immediately after she had transitioned out as editor-in-chief, and I must say, as much as i dislike what seem to be her current politics, she put out a very impressive yearbook, which set a high standard for the rest of us... All that said, Messiah College is a very good school. It may be "no Harvard" but it has sent plenty of alumni to Harvard, Yale, and even Oxford. It is also known in conservative evangelical circles as a "very liberal" college.
Messiah has a religious, socially conservative orientation, but it's closer to an ordinary liberal arts college than to the likes of Regent, Liberty, or Bob Jones. Students are allowed, even encouraged, to think for themselves, and its large and enthusiastic Dean for America college club was written up in the Harrisburg newspaper.
As a liberal Christian who wanted to see what else was out there in the world, I wouldn't have wanted to go to college there, however.