Feeds: 
symbol identifies content for paid subscribers only.
SO HELP ME IVY. The Post reports that President Bush is beefing up his besieged White House legal team with some crack lawyers to defend the administration against a variety of congressional inquiries. As the Post's Peter Baker notes, all eight [of the newly-hired attorneys] received degrees from Ivy League schools or from West Point.
So, when it comes to policy-making over at the so-called Justice Department, a Regent University law degree, like the one held by Monica "I may have crossed the line" Goodling and a battalion of other fundies, suffices. But when it comes to protecting the president's backside, apparently a divine legal degree is no substitute for an East Coast elite Ivy School pedigree.
--Tom Schaller
COMMENTS (15)
Any dummy can make policy for this administration.
But for REAL legal defense, you'd better have someone who's REAL good!
Posted by: Larry Epke | June 11, 2007 10:10 AM
I'm with Dahlia Lithwick on this one: whatever the merits of other Regent grads may be, Monica Goodling is smart and impressive. Or at least she came off that way in the hearings. Working on the side of the demons, obviously, but smart and impressive.
Posted by: brooksfoe | June 11, 2007 10:17 AM
brooksfoe - you're joking, right? Monica Goodling, smart?
Posted by: HappyRabo | June 11, 2007 10:37 AM
I am not sure what hearing you watched but the one that Monica testified at regarding the USA firings did not show her to be be either smart or impressive. It was typical of the BS shoveling, I don't remember crap of a tiny mind in search of cover.
Posted by: Frankly | June 11, 2007 10:40 AM
Monica Goodling is like totally smart and stuff she's even smarter than my big brother and he's like in sixth grade or something
Posted by: Quack quack | June 11, 2007 10:45 AM
Monica Goodling is a shill and a liar, and she doesn't do either well. She would never have made it past the first year of a real law school.
Posted by: madamab | June 11, 2007 10:54 AM
Goodling:smart? NOT.
Try:well coached and smart enough to obey her lawyer.
Try True Believer.
Posted by: susan | June 11, 2007 11:02 AM
I'm with Dahlia Lithwick on this one
Got a link?
Posted by: Gee | June 11, 2007 11:14 AM
this isn't quite right. The first person named in the whitehouse.gov announcement has degrees from Fairfield, Trinity and UConn. All fine schools, but none are in the Ivy League.
Posted by: Passing Shot | June 11, 2007 11:16 AM
sorry, I misread. Farren is replacing another individual, so technically his is not a new position.
Posted by: Passing Shot | June 11, 2007 11:20 AM
Goodling exceeded expectations.
That wasn't too hard, since the press ahead of her hearing painted her as a snakehandling hick.
She accomplished coming off as *presentable.* Now, let's see her do it *without* weeks of coaching and *with* the e-mails on the table.
Posted by: Charles | June 11, 2007 11:22 AM
Monica Goodling may well be smart, but she sure as hell is naive and unseasoned and clearly unqualified for the position she held in the justice department. Companies like Microsoft and GE hire a lot of smart people too, but they don't thrust them into Vice President of Product Development roles shortly out of MBA school because they show unflailing loyalty to the CEO. They are expected to learn the ropes, and the good ones move up to higher positions with more responsibility. But our "CEO President" thinks outside the box on this issue.
Posted by: sublime33 | June 11, 2007 11:36 AM
I think the point has been missed. The genius is staffing key positions with young, impressionable ideologues that can easily be manipulated and influenced and lack the experience needed to identify let alone stand up to blatant wrongdoing.
Posted by: Anonymous | June 11, 2007 1:27 PM
Regent Law grads for thee but not for me . . .
Posted by: paul | June 11, 2007 3:26 PM
Nice comments...something to point out though: Regent Law won the National ABA Negotiating and Moot Court Competitions last year, as well as best brief in the nation, defeating Top 10s all the way.
The joke is the law school rankings.
Posted by: Bryan | August 6, 2008 10:29 AM