Anyone familiar with the shockingly hilarious 1999 film about a petulant blonde high-schooler and her lust for power will recognise the dark arts that the young Monica Goodling practiced during her reign at the US justice department.
A damning report released yesterday by the justice department's ethics office shows that 33-year-old Goodling systematically rejected qualified candidates for jobs due to their insufficient love for rightwing politics and the current US president.
"What is it about George Bush that makes you want to serve him?" Goodling asked one aspiring justice department lawyer. Another poor job-seeker was shot down by Goodling after expressing fondness for Condoleezza Rice, who - gasp! - supports abortion rights.
Goodling resigned from the Bush administration last year, not long before her former boss Alberto Gonzales was forced out the door amid multiple still-swirling scandals. She has admitted that she "crossed the line" during her spree of illegal and questionable hiring decisions.
But all this begs a cynical question, one that I've asked on this blog before: What are the odds of real consequences here? At best, they're as slim as an Olsen twin.
The current justice department of Michael Mukasey would have to lead the way in prosecuting Goodling or her partners in alleged employment crime, and M.M. has shown so little affinity for internal house-cleaning that he's on the verge of being held in contempt of Congress himself. Heaps of civil lawsuits are being filed by the job seekers Goodling turned down, however, which means that a more pesky sort of justice may be served - via monetary damages - in coming years.
