Justice Department Meltdown . . . .

From today's New York Times online:

A top aide to Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales resigned on Friday, becoming another casualty of the political storm that has rocked the Justice Department in the aftermath of last year’s dismissals of eight United States attorneys.

The aide, Monica Goodling, had helped to coordinate those dismissals with the White House, an episode that has provoked demands for Mr. Gonzales’s dismissal. Even Mr. Gonzales’s allies, including President Bush, say the dismissals were bungled from a public relations and political standpoint.

Ms. Goodling, who has been on leave as the Justice Department’s liaison to the White House, notified the Senate Judiciary Committee through her lawyer on March 26 that she would invoke her constitutional right not to testify in the panel’s inquiry about the dismissals — not because she had anything to hide, the lawyer said, but because she did not expect fair treatment in the current climate of political hostility.

In a three-sentence resignation letter, Ms. Goodling wrote to Mr. Gonzales, “May God bless you richly as you continue your service to America.”

Ms. Goodling, 33, was not widely known before her refusal to testify. She is a 1995 graduate of Messiah College in Grantham, Pa., and received her law degree at Regent University in Virginia Beach, according to many Web site postings. Messiah describes itself as “committed to an embracing evangelical spirit,” while Regent was founded by the Christian broadcaster Pat Robertson.

Once again, the radical religious zealots weave their web into US government positions.

Pity . . . .