More White House lies...

February 29, 2008 1:11 PM

Tim Goeglein, director of the White House office of public liaison, is a plagiarist.
... and he actually admits it.

“It is true,” Tim Goeglein wrote to The Journal Gazette in an e-mail. “I am entirely at fault. It was wrong of me. There are no excuses."

Found by Blogger (and MeFi lurker) Nancy Nall.
posted by jpburns (25 comments total)

At last, this will be the thing that ...

Aw, why do I bother.
posted by Astro Zombie at 1:13 PM on February 29, 2008

Why is it that I'm constantly waiting for one of these mia culpa, I-take-full-responsibility speeches to actually end with "...and that is why I am resigning my post as of today."

Not in this administration. Not since the last time one of this crew actually (and shockingly out of character) showed a spine and did so.
posted by Pollomacho at 1:18 PM on February 29, 2008

FAT WHITE HOUSE AIDES DECLAW CATS IN BLACK SUV'S
posted by quonsar at 1:22 PM on February 29, 2008

Who? Seriously, this guy is like what, about as important as the White House cook or something yeah? This isn't going to be kind of like when we all tried to pretend that Scooter Libby was a really super important player after Fitz failed to nail Rove or Cheney is it? Because really, that was embarrassing.
posted by Lentrohamsanin at 1:26 PM on February 29, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

FAT WHITE HOUSE AIDES DECLAW CATS IN BLACK SUV'S

Wait, are the cats in the SUV's or the Aides?
posted by Pollomacho at 1:26 PM on February 29, 2008

White House Office Descriptions:
Public Liaison
The Office of Public Liaison promotes Presidential priorities through outreach to concerned constituencies and public interest groups. This includes planning White House briefings, meetings, and large events with the President, Vice President, and other White House staff.

Yeah, I just can't get a fire in the belly over Bush's appointment secretary being a plagiarist.
posted by Lentrohamsanin at 1:29 PM on February 29, 2008

What does being a plagiarist get you? A $118k annual salary.
posted by mullingitover at 1:32 PM on February 29, 2008 [2 favorites has favorites]

Plagiarism is pretty far down the list of Bush Administration atrocities.
posted by Sys Rq at 1:35 PM on February 29, 2008

Bullshit, nobody in the Administration takes responsibility for anything.
posted by Pope Guilty at 1:37 PM on February 29, 2008

You have to figure that the White House is scraping the bottom of the employee barrel by this time. Anyone who is even remotely competent must have bailed years ago. It's hard to imagine that working for the Bush White House looks good on a resume, I'm sure that they have to hire who they can get. And who they can get are incompetent party hack types who can't even write a crappy press release without cribbing it.
posted by octothorpe at 1:38 PM on February 29, 2008

Well, except for “It is true,” Tim Goeglein wrote to The Journal Gazette in an e-mail. “I am entirely at fault. It was wrong of me. There are no excuses." Sort of, kinda seems, a little bit like, taking responsibility.
posted by sfts2 at 1:50 PM on February 29, 2008

Plagiarism is theft and at most jobs, theft gets you fired.

He owns up to the theft, but doesn't get fired. This is like the administration waving their abuse of power in our faces and saying "What are you gonna do about it?"
posted by bryanzera at 1:58 PM on February 29, 2008

it's the pod thingie on his nose

the pod thingie tells him what to think and to write - if he was higher up, like president bush, he could have the pod thingie on his back
posted by pyramid termite at 1:59 PM on February 29, 2008

Well, except for “It is true,” Tim Goeglein wrote to The Journal Gazette in an e-mail. “I am entirely at fault. It was wrong of me. There are no excuses." Sort of, kinda seems, a little bit like, taking responsibility.

Well, no, saying, "Gee, I really did this atrocious thing intentionally and without integrity," is not taking responsibility. It's just admitting you did something wrong. Writing a letter is a rather inadequate way of atoning. Resigning for disgracing your political employer seems about right, but as someone upstream pointed out, that isn't in the style of this administration.
posted by Mental Wimp at 3:38 PM on February 29, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

bryanzera writes "He owns up to the theft, but doesn't get fired. "

He didn't get fired, but the President "accepted Tim's resignation today."
posted by mullingitover at 4:11 PM on February 29, 2008

Oh, and it's also worth mentioning that (from the White House announcement of his resignation) "Tim helped establish the President's Faith-Based and Community Initiative."

I might've felt a hint of sympathy for him if not for that part. Good to see someone who defaced wall of separation between church and state go down in shame. Justice happens by accident sometimes.
posted by mullingitover at 4:15 PM on February 29, 2008

The News-Sentinel: "[Goeglein] said there may be other previous columns he has written for The News-Sentinel that also may contain plagiarized material. We have found material in at least two other previous guest columns lifted from other sources without attribution and are continuing to check other previous submissions....The News-Sentinel will report further on this in Saturday's newspaper and online. We will not publish writings by Goeglein in the future."
posted by ericb at 4:31 PM on February 29, 2008

Give the guy a break. He went to the Blair Hornstine School of Guest Journalism.
posted by ericb at 4:36 PM on February 29, 2008

Apparently he's plagiarized 20 columns (and counting).

Weasel.
posted by jpburns at 4:49 PM on February 29, 2008

Pollomacho writes "Why is it that I'm constantly waiting for one of these mia culpa, I-take-full-responsibility speeches to actually end with '...and that is why I am resigning my post as of today.'"

I'd like that, too, just for once, but he plagiarized an unrelated column, and his responsibilities for the WH don't have anything to do with writing anything meaningful. I'd be really disappointed if he resigned but nobody else did for all the other serious crimes this administration has perpetrated. This is nothing, really, although it's a bit slimy.
posted by krinklyfig at 5:08 PM on February 29, 2008

mullingitover writes "He didn't get fired, but the President 'accepted Tim's resignation today.'"

Great. Rumsfeld tried to resign repeatedly, and Bush turned him down repeatedly, until it became clear that there was no other choice. This is really small potatoes, and doesn't have anything to do with how Bush and Co. have handled the last seven years. The guy handled it well, though, from coming right out and admitting it to resigning right away, but I don't really care about this guy or whether he claimed someone else's writing as his own for a newspaper column.
posted by krinklyfig at 5:13 PM on February 29, 2008

I bet his final google search on the job was "resignation letter."
posted by mullingitover at 5:26 PM on February 29, 2008 [2 favorites has favorites]

I can't believe that Bush would hire someone so incompetent.
posted by jefbla at 6:42 PM on February 29, 2008

Wow. This is fascinating to me. I just don't get how people have the nerve to do this sort of thing. I mean, it seriously takes nads. Stupid nads.
posted by loiseau at 8:18 PM on February 29, 2008

I can't believe that Bush would hire someone so incompetent.

Is it even possible to say that with a straight face?
posted by Reth_Eldirood at 10:18 PM on March 1, 2008