Religious Bias on Capitol Hill?
May 25, 2007
Monica Goodling, the woman in the middle of the Justice department firings story, testified on the Hill the other day. She admitted to crossing the line because she looked at partisan affiliation when hiring some career Justice Department employees. But the hearing took a strange and to some lawmakers disturbing turn when Rep. Steve Cohen, a Democrat from Tennessee brought up the fact that Monica Goodling attended Regent University Law School, a Christian University. Here's what Rep. Cohen said:
REP. COHEN: The mission of the law school you attended, Regent, is to bring bear -- "is to bring to bear upon legal education and the legal profession the will of Almighty God, our Creator." What is "the will of Almighty God, our Creator" on the legal profession?
MS. GOODLING: I'm not sure that I could define that question for you.
Later, the exchange went like this:
REP. COHEN: 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?
MS. GOODLING: I think we have a lot more people from Harvard and Yale.
REP. COHEN: Well, that's refreshing.Is it a fact -- are you aware of the fact that in your graduating class 50 to 60 percent of the students failed the bar the first time?
MS. GOODLING: I'm not -- I don't remember the statistics, but I know it wasn't good. I was happy I passed the first time.
Republican Congressmen Randy Forbes jumped to her defense saying:
Ms. Goodling, many of us feared this day would come, but we did not realize it would arrive so soon, when the fact that someone was a Christian would be the subject of a line of questioning as to how someone performed their job at the Department of Justice or any other agency in the United States government.
It's not a good day, nor a good sign of things to come, and I just hope those individuals watching this across the country realize the sea change that's taken place.
In addition, since my district is contiguous to Regent University, I'd like to point out that not only is the attorney general of Virginia a graduate of Regent University, but this year, Regent University students won the American Bar Association's Negotiation Competition February 11, not only beating out 220 teams, but also beating the former winner, Harvard University.
And the American Bar Association, not exactly a bastion of conservatism, has chosen Regent University to compete internationally in their competition.And that Regent has won the ABA's National Appellate Advocacy Competition 11 out of the last 14 years, including placing first for the best brief.
Then, Republican Congressman Mike Pence had this exchange with Goodling:
Rep. Pence: You're a graduate, I think, cum laude from -- is it Regent University School of Law and Government, Virginia Beach, Virginia?
MS. GOODLING: I have a master's in public policy and a law degree from Regent, yes.
REP. PENCE: And is it also -- and you don't need to answer this. I think you may know that the attorney general of the state of Virginia is also a graduate of Regent University in Virginia Beach, Virginia.
MS. GOODLING: I've heard that.
REP. PENCE: Okay, and I would assume, you're not terribly concerned about the tendency of a conservative president to hire graduates from conservative graduate schools in this country.
MS. GOODLING: Not at all.
REP. PENCE: Nothing that would concern you about that?
MS. GOODLING: No.
REP. PENCE: Thank you. Well, this graduate of a Christian college appreciates your sentiment about that.
Read more about this from Byron York at National Review. Click here. You can also watch a video story of the hearing put together by Dana Milbank at The Washington Post here.
Let's be real here. Do you really think if Monica Goodling went to let's say, Vassar or Virginia Tech (or just pick your school) that she would have been subjected to those comments? As Randy Jackson from American Idol would say, "Do you feel me dawg? Comments?
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