Chutzpa All Time Record

Nerve, faccia di bronza, bold facedness, shamelessness and many other lawyerly virtues have never reached such heights.

Monica Goodling, a senior Justice Department official involved in the firings of federal prosecutors, will refuse to answer questions at upcoming Senate hearings, citing Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination, her lawyer said Monday.

"The potential for legal jeopardy for Ms. Goodling from even her most truthful and accurate testimony under these circumstances is very real," said the lawyer, John Dowd.

"One need look no further than the recent circumstances and proceedings involving Lewis Libby," he said, a reference to the recent conviction of Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff in the CIA leak case.

Dowd's argument, essentially, is that Goodling can not risk testifying because she is likely to be subject to prosecution when another witness with equally honest testimony would not be, since, evidently, the DOJ discriminates against high DOJ officials.

In the previous record setting argument, in which a man who murdered both parents threw himself on the mercy of the court on the grounds that he was an orphan, the claim of fact was true.

While Dowd goes on to argue that come Senators are prejudiced and hostile, he does not explain what Senatorial hostility has to do with the fifth, which concerns prosecution. There may be a special prosecutor named in this case, but a slip up like the naming of Cox and of Fitzgerald is highly unlikely, since the deciders are subjects of the investigation.

What's next ? I'm waiting for a prosecutor to take the fifth when a judge asks him if he can finish his closing arguments by 5 pm.