Monica “I take the fifth” Goodling, senior counselor to AG Alberto Gonzales, resigned from the Justice Department yesterday. This follows resignations by Kyle Sampson, Gonzales’ chief of staff, and Michael Battle, the staffer who actually carried out the firings of eight US Attorneys deemed insufficiently loyal to the Bush administration.
In related news, Monica’s pal Rachel Paulose, another Gonzales crony recently appointed to serve as US Attorney in Minnesota, is such a lousy manager that four of her deputies demoted themselves this week so they wouldn’t have to work with her anymore. Seems she “has earned a reputation for quoting Bible verses and dressing down underlings”.
Paulose’s predecessor was not one of the eight who were fired, but he stepped down just as the Justice Department started working on its hit list.
Here we go again. Loyalty trumps competence, and chaos ensues.