The Cultist

The Washington Post has a piece on Monica Goodling this morning that paints a picture of another Christian Soldier and cultist turned Bush loyalist. A graduate of Evangelical basic training and Pat Robertson's advanced training for young wingnuts who rose rapidly in the Bush administration because of loyalty.
Bush Loyalist Rose Quickly at Justice

Part of a generation of young religious conservatives who swept into the federal government after the election of President Bush in 2000, Goodling displayed unblinking devotion to the administration and expected others to do the same. When she started at Justice, "no job was too small for her," and as she moved rapidly up the ranks, none "was too large," Corallo said.

"She was the embodiment of a hardworking young conservative who believed strongly in the president and his mission," said David Ayres, former chief of staff to Bush's first attorney general, John D. Ashcroft.

This week, Goodling, 33, became the most prominent federal official to invoke the Fifth Amendment to avoid testifying before Congress since Lt. Col. Oliver L. North refused to answer questions -- until he received immunity -- during the 1986 Iran-contra hearings.

Goodling, now on an indefinite leave, most recently served as senior counsel to Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and as Justice's liaison to the White House. Her name appears on several e-mails about the firings of eight U.S. attorneys, and members of the Senate Judiciary Committee are eager to ask her about those dismissals.

Explaining why she invoked her right against self-incrimination, her lawyer, John M. Dowd, called the investigation "hostile" and said that some committee members "have already reached conclusions."

So what was her mistake? According to her fellow cultists it wasn't what she did.

To her supporters, Goodling's only mistake -- if she made one at all -- was not anticipating the political peril before the 2006 midterm elections.

"The young conservatives who came off the campaign and were new to town with this administration, they've never seen lean times," said a veteran Republican political appointee who declined to be quoted by name saying anything critical of Goodling. "They had no appreciation for what would happen after the Democrats took control and how tough it would be."

So the only mistake she made was the same one Harold Meyerson talked about, she didn't recognize that things had changed.

The real mistake that Ms Goodling and many other young Republican Christians have made is they fail to recognize that the Pat Robertsons, Gerry Falwells and James Dobsons are not about spirituality or Jesus but about pure political power. Hence their unholy aliance with the Bush administration. Perhaps Ms Goodling needs a little jail time so she can find the real Jesus and discover what he taught and stood for.

More on Monica Goodling here.

Update
Rational Republican John Cole has a must read post on this:
Thank God For Chuck Schumer