During the “All-Star Panel” segment on the March 28 edition of Fox News' Special Report, Roll Call executive editor Morton M. Kondracke called the Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee investigating the firing of eight U.S. attorneys “a hanging party,” explaining that he chose the characterization “because every time there's an inconsistency in somebody's testimony, however minute ... they're ready to pounce and accuse [the witness], basically, of perjury or violating the law or something like that.” Additionally, Kondracke accused Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) of "McCarthyism," for questioning the reasons behind Justice Department White House liaison Monica Goodling's statement that she would invoke her Fifth Amendment right and refuse to testify if called upon by Congress. Addressing Goodling's announcement, Leahy stated: “The American people are left to wonder what conduct is at the base of Ms. Goodling's concern that she may incriminate herself.”

Fellow panelist and Weekly Standard executive editor Fred Barnes later stated that he thought the whole investigation is a “witch hunt,” while Fortune magazine Washington bureau chief Nina Easton added that the investigation is “just a dangerous distraction from what Congress should be focused on.”

Fox News Washington managing editor and host Brit Hume began the segment by asking Kondracke, "[W]here, really, does this case stand?" Kondracke responded by referring to the “Monica Goodling issue,” which he characterized as “worse” than the case of former vice presidential chief of staff Lewis “Scooter” Libby. Libby was convicted on March 6 of two counts of perjury, one count of making false statements to FBI agents and one count of obstruction of justice for lying to investigators and a federal grand jury investigating the CIA leak case. Kondracke explained the difference, saying that “in the Scooter Libby case, presumably, [special counsel] Patrick Fitzgerald was conducting an open inquiry and trying to get to the facts.” “In this case,” he continued, “we have a hanging party ... consisting of the Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee,” where “every time there's an inconsistency in somebody's testimony, however minute ... [committee Democrats are] ready to pounce and accuse them [the witness] basically of perjury.” In that situation, Kondracke said, Goodling “has every constitutional right not to stick her head in the noose that they have prepared for her.”

Kondracke then discussed Leahy's response to Goodling's announcement, in which the senator stated that “everybody has the constitutional right not to incriminate themselves with regard to criminal conduct,” adding that "[t]he American people are left to wonder what conduct is at the base of Ms. Goodling's concern that she may incriminate herself in connection with criminal charges if she appears before the Committee under oath." Kondracke said Leahy had made “some nefarious conclusion on the basis of the fact that she's exerting her constitutional right” and added that Leahy's comment “sort of reminds you of McCarthyism, way back when anybody who took the Fifth [at the time] was suspected of being a communist. In this case, it's not a communist, but it's some sort of lawbreaker,” at which point Hume interjected, “It's a Republican!” Kondracke agreed, saying: “Yeah. Right.”

From the March 28 edition of Fox News' Special Report with Brit Hume:

HUME: So, where the matter stands now is that she [Goodling] won't testify. Kyle Sampson, the departed top aide, executive assistant, or whatever, to the chief of staff to the attorney general, will, but where, really, does this case stand?

KONDRACKE: Well, you know on the Monica Goodling issue, this is worse than the Lewis Libby case. I mean --

HUME: Why so? From her you mean? From her point of view?

KONDRACKE: Well yes, because in the Scooter Libby case, presumably, Patrick Fitzgerald was conducting an open inquiry and trying to get to the facts. In this case, we have a hanging party, and -- consisting of the Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee who are after somebody, and they're using --

HUME: Why do you say it's a hanging party?

KONDRACKE: Well, because every time there's an inconsistency in somebody's testimony, however minute -- and it often turns on the definition of what is political and what is not political -- they're ready to pounce and accuse them, basically, of perjury or violating the law or something like that. I mean, she does not -- she has every constitutional right not to stick her head in the noose that they have prepared for her.

So, you know, and then the idea that Leahy is making some nefarious conclusion on the basis of the fact that she's exerting her constitutional right sort of reminds you of McCarthyism, way back when anybody who took the Fifth under those was suspected of being a communist. In this case, it's not a communist, but it's some sort of lawbreaker.

HUME: It's a Republican!

KONDRACKE: Yeah. Right.

[...]

HUME: Would I be correct in describing this is a regular mess?

KONDRACKE: Yeah, and it's a mess --

BARNES: No. No, witch hunt would be better.

EASTON: And a dangerous distraction from --

HUME: I don't think they're mutually exclusive, Fred, you can have a witch hunt that's also a regular mess.

BARNES: Yeah.

EASTON: I would add just a dangerous distraction from what Congress should be focused on.