I could hardly believe the two words that had just emanated from my cell phone.
"Monica Goodling."
It was about noon on Monday and I had just finished an interview at York Hospital about their new hospital gowns. It looked like I was in for a slow day.
Then my cell phone rang. My city editor wanted to make sure I was heading back soon. Monica Goodling -- a York Haven native and 1991 graduate of Northeastern High School -- was back in the national news.
Last year, I wrote about her a good deal when Congressional investigators were looking into whether politics improperly played a role in the firing of at least eight U.S. attorneys in 2006.
Ms. Goodling at first pleaded the fifth, then agreed to testify before the U.S. House of Representatives' Judiciary Committee in May 2007.
In the weeks leading up to her testimony, a lot of journalists and pundits were speculating about what she would say. One theory had her implicating the White House -- maybe serving as the catalyst for impeachment proceedings in the process.
It was a potentially huge story for us, if someone from York County ended up playing such an important role. I poked around, trying to find anyone who could tell me the story of Ms. Goodling's York County years.
I talked to neighbors who knew her mother and stepfather before they moved further west in Pennsylvania a few years back. I spoke to some college and high school teachers, and a couple of high school classmates. I even drove a few hours out to her mother's new place, talked to her mother through her front door for about 30 minutes, then turned around and drove home.
Frankly, none of it amounted to much. She was a smart kid. Liked to read. Got good grades. Kept a fairly low profile in high school. And to all appearances more-or-less left York County behind for good when she went off to college, then to Washington D.C.
I headed down to D.C. when she testified before the Judiciary Committee. That was the first time I saw her in person. She was blonde and prim, surrounded by cameras clicking relentlessly like a swarm of cicadas.
She testified that she wasn't really involved with the firings, but that she "crossed the line" by taking job applicants' politics into account. It was interesting, but not bring-down-the-presidency dramatic.
Once I drove back to York County and filed my story, I figured that was the end of it. But it wasn't, as Monday's phone call from my editor attested.
TO BE CONTINUED IN THE NEXT THRILLING INSTALLMENT OF "THE RETURN OF MONICA"
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