Monica Goodling

All Hail the Queen: Monica Goodling on Capitol Hill (Part 5)

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BREAKING: Is the cool and collected Monica Goodling starting to crack, under the persistent and probing questioning of Rep. Artur Davis (D-AL)? Details after the jump (around the 3:25 mark).
3:08: Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) employs a too-clever-by-half strategy to try and get Monica Goodling to say that Alberto Gonzales should be fired. It falls flat.
3:12: Rep. Artur Davis asks Goodling specific questions about whether she believes various statements by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales about the firings were incorrect. He gets her to admit, multiple times, that the Attorney General’s statements were inaccurate. Sometimes the simplest questions are best.
3:14: Oooh, Rep. Davis is definitely making inroads. John Dowd objects and asks to see the AG testimony being referenced. Rep. Davis slaps Dowd: “As I recall, you are not a participant in these proceedings.”
Rep. Lungren (R-CA), clearly disturbed by the points that Davis is scoring, protests through a point of order. The Chair — Sheila Jackson Lee, filling in for John Conyers — overrules the point of order.
3:15: Rep. Lungren appeals the ruling of the chair. He is smacked down.
WOW, this is DEFINITELY heating up. More after the jump.


Goodling has asked for time to consult with her counsel. Jackson Lee says there will be a recess. But various members point out that there can’t be a recess under parliamentary rules. Lots of raised voices and committee members talking over each other.
Parliamentary pandemonium. Exciting!!! Sheila Jackson Lee is looking pretty incompetent. Where’s Conyers?
3:20: WTF? We are now having a roll call vote. But can someone remind us what this vote is for?
3:22: By a vote of 17-9, the motion to table passes.
3:24: Davis’s questioning of Goodling resumes — with time restored for all of the procedural hullabaloo.
3:25: Goodling is testifying about the circumstances of her departure from the DOJ. This could get very interesting…
3:28: Goodling testifies about a conversation she had with Attorney General Gonzales, concerning their recollections about U.S. Attorneygate, that may have been “inappropriate.” She wasn’t sure that “this was a conversation we should be having.”
3:29: She has been poised and calm throughout the day. But is Monica Goodling, worn down by hours of testifying, starting to crack? Is her voice trembling? Is she about to sell the AG down the river?
3:32: All the Dems keep yielding their time to Davis. ‘Cause they know this guy is GOOD — professional, precise, prepared. And he’s scoring some serious points in his questioning of La Goodling.
3:38: Congressman Artur Davis will be played by Terrence Howard in the made-for-TV movie about the U.S. Attorney firings scandal.
And what about Monica Goodling? Mira Sorvino might be too old; but Kate Bosworth might be too young.
3:43: Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN), a freshman legislator, should have ceded his time to Davis. But now he’s trying to act all tough and macho, getting snippy with the witness, so he can look as “cool” as Davis. Give it up, Keith; you are no Artur Davis.
3:45: The Committee stands in recess. The members have been summoned for some votes.

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