Monica Goodling and Griffin were close associates, she pushed particularly hard for AJ appointment

http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1175245444489

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After graduating in 1999, Goodling landed a job at the D.C. headquarters of the Republican National Committee just as the 2000 Bush-Cheney campaign was ramping up. Goodling's position put her inside the newly created war room for political opposition research. There, she worked alongside a crew of party faithful who would later shepherd her through the ranks at Justice.

Among Goodling's close associates were Barbara Comstock, head of opposition research for the RNC and later the chief spokeswoman for Ashcroft; Griffin, Comstock's deputy, whom Goodling would later help to win the interim appointment to replace one of the eight ousted U.S. Attorneys in Arkansas; and Mark Corallo, who in 2003 took the helm of the Justice Department's Public Affairs Office after Comstock.

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These interviews took on new meaning after the renewal of the Patriot Act; Goodling was one of the first to push the attorney general's new authority to choose replacements, and she pushed particularly hard for Griffin.

Griffin was slated to take over the slot in Arkansas, but by August 2006, the White House had hit trouble with home state Sen. Mark Pryor, D.-Ark. In an Aug. 18 e-mail to Sampson, Goodling proposed a solution: Have Justice pick Griffin for a political position, and then detail him in as an interim.

"Tim knows nothing about my idea for a solution at this point -- wanted your sign-off, and a home for him, before I called him," she wrote in the e-mail. The idea paid off: The Criminal Division agreed to take Griffin on upon his return from his post as a judge advocate general in Iraq in late September.

Goodling continued to work closely to coordinate Griffin's assignment to Arkansas, organizing his formal December interview with Gonzales.