By now, most everyone has heard about Monica M. Goodling, the former senior aide to Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, who was involved in hiring and firing Justice Department employees solely based on their party affiliation. If not, you can read about Goodling’s “dramatic public admission” about the Bush gang’s allegedly illegal hiring criteria in this Washington Post story.

Yet the photogenic blond graduate of the Pat Robertson-founded Regent University made an even more dubious contribution to Washington life a few years ago. Remember back when the Justice Dept. spent $8,000 to cover up art deco statues that featured bare-breasted women? Well, according to a little-noticed May 7 “Inside Washington” column in the National Journal, it was the prudish Goodling, not John Ashcroft who ordered the ostensibly “offensive” art works covered up.

So it seems Ashcroft wasn’t the uptight anti-sex fanatic we thought he was. That honor goes to Goodling. Wonder if her “immunity” in testifying will mean she won’t go to the slammer, where there’s sure to be some real undressing going on.