Behind the cloak of mystery, a timid voice

For weeks, Monica M. Goodling fended off House investigators, pleading the 5th Amendment, refusing to testify or surrender requested documents.

On Wednesday, having wrangled her into their hearing room with a subpoena and a grant of immunity, Democrats were loaded for bear.

Here was their chance to confront the mystery woman in the Justice Department’s U.S. attorney firing scandal, the rising young star who appeared in dozens of e-mails and documents, and wielded so much power over the careers of prosecutors.

Then she sat before them, wide-eyed and demure, her long blond hair tucked behind her ears, her black suit intensifying the pallor of her face.

“The person that I read about on the Internet and in the newspaper is not me,” Goodling said, her voice quavering, her hands clasped tightly under the witness table. “At heart, I’m a fairly quiet person. I try to do the right thing, and I try to treat people kindly along the way.”

But the 33-year-old former aide clearly posed a challenge to Democratic interrogators who in recent weeks have raked and battered a procession of Goodling’s former colleagues in the witness chair, including Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales.

Goodling was crisp and precise in her answers, but her voice was thin and fragile. Most Democrats found themselves adopting a gentle tone, even when they were boring in.

Goodling offered little on the main focus of the House Judiciary Committee inquiry: whether the Bush administration fired eight federal prosecutors for political reasons.

“I did not hold the keys to the kingdom,” she said. “I was not the primary White House contact for purposes of the development or approval of the U.S. attorney replacement plan.”

Republicans on the committee appeared relieved to hear that.

“You’ve been a huge disappointment to a lot of people that were expecting to find some grand conspiracy of the Justice Department to deny justice to the American people,” said Rep. Tom Feeney (R-Fla.).

Despite her general air of timidity, Goodling held her own.

One member tried to denigrate her legal pedigree from Regent University, a Christian university founded by evangelist Pat Robertson.

“The mission of the law school you attended, Regent, is to bring to bear upon legal education and the legal profession the will of almighty God, our creator,” said Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.). “What is the will of almighty God, our creator, on the legal profession?”

“I’m not sure that I could define that question for you,” Goodling parried.

“Are there a lot of, an inordinate number of people from Regent University Law School that were hired by the Department of Justice while you were there?” Cohen continued.

“I think we have a lot more people from Harvard and Yale,” Goodling said, to laughter from the audience.

In the end, even House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) appeared to go easy on Goodling, chiding fellow Democrats who cut off her answers.

“If this is a witch hunt,” Rep. Chris Cannon (R-Utah) said at the end of the day, “it was Glinda, the pretty witch, not the Wicked Witch of the West.”

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maura.reynolds@latimes.com