Monica Goodling

I'm watching Monica Goodling testify live on C-Span as I write this.

Maybe others will disagree with me, but gosh, she is a good witness. Partly it's her looks -- she's quite pretty, in a girl-next-door kind of way, and she exudes this mom-and-apple-pie sincerity. Her opening statement was really good, particularly when she admitted going a bit far in asking political questions of applicants for career positions.

Maybe she's just slicker than Al Gonzales, but she's doing all the usual "to the best of my recollection" hedging, but she's accompanying such answers with enough information that you get the sense she's actually telling what she knows.

That doesn't keep Republicans from blowing it -- Representative Chris Cannon (R., Utah) is reading a bunch of crap into the record, enjoying the sound of his own voice, instead of letting the well-scrubbed and photogenic Monica Goodling do the talking.