Goodling's lawyers fire back at House Dems, compare Conyers, Leahy to Joseph McCarthy
 Monica M. Goodling, the senior aide to Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales who has pledged to invoke fifth amendment rights if called to testify about the US Attorney firing scandal, today fired back at Democrats.
Goodling's attorneys sent a letter to House Democrats that "lambasted" Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) and Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) for "questioning whether Goodling was hiding criminal activity by refusing to testify before Congress," wrote the Washington Post.
Her attorneys said that her intention to plead the fifth "can in no way be interpreted to suggest that Ms. Goodling herself participated in any criminal activity."
On Tuesday, RAW STORY reported that Conyers, and Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-CA), told Goodling's counsel that that her "asserted grounds for refusing to testify do not satisfy the well-established bases for a proper invocation of the Fifth Amendment against self-incrimination."
In their retort today, Goodling's attorneys accused Democrats of McCarthyism, writing, "recent suggestions [that pleading the fifth implicates Goodling in criminal activity] are unfortunately reminiscent of Senator Joseph McCarthy, who infamously labeled those who asserted their constitutional right to remain silent before his committee 'Fifth Amendment Communists.'"
In March, one of Goodling's lawyers, John Dowd, told the Associated Press, "The potential for legal jeopardy for Ms. Goodling from even her most truthful and accurate testimony under these circumstances is very real."
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