Paul Burgess (speechwriter)

Paul D. Burgess (born June 6, 1960) is a conservative American writer. Burgess is a former legislative staffer on Capitol Hill, a former director of foreign-policy speechwriting at the White House, and has written essays for Virginia newspapers.

Personal

At the time of his 1999 writing for the "Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star", Burgess was identified by the newspaper as a resident of Fredericksburg, Virginia. By 2006, the newspaper identified Burgess as a resident of Spotsylvania County, Virginia. He grew up in Maui before moving to Cheyenne, Wyoming, where he graduated from Central High in 1978 and attended the University of Wyoming. He served in the Marines and traveled with guerillas in Afghanistan.

Career

Burgess was director of foreign-policy speechwriting at the White House from October 2003 to July 2005. He previously worked for Senators Alan Simpson (R) and Mike Enzi (R) of Wyoming, at the Defense Intelligence Agency after 9/11, and as a speechwriter at the Pentagon for two years. [Michelle Dynes, " [http://cache.zoominfo.com/cachedpage/?archive_id=0&page_id=664833150&page_url=%2f%2fwww.wyomingnews.com%2fnews%2fmore.asp%3fStoryID%3d101956&page_last_updated=4%2f13%2f2004+5%3a30%3a05+AM&firstName=Paul&lastName=Burgess Central High Grad writes speeches for White House] " "Wyoming Tribune-Eagle"]

Controversies

Clinton military policies

In 1999, Burgess wrote of what he saw as the harm done by Bill Clinton to the United States military:

:This past decade has seen the evolution of policies first implemented before President Clinton but embraced by him with frenzied enthusiasm that have all but wiped out what is now nostalgically referred to as the warrior culture. [Paul Burgess, " [http://www.3bn12marnet.org/Inbox.html General Charles Krulak, CMC, Retires] ", March 13, 1999, "Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star".]

Hatred of the Left

In October 2006, Burgess returned to what he believed to be the harm done by leftists to American culture, in an essay entitled "Friends, Neighbors, and Countrymen Of the Left: I Hate Your Lying Guts." Despite his past talk of the "frenzied enthusiasm" of people such as President Clinton, Burgess stated that he had previously not hated the left:

:I now find that I am infected with a hatred for the very quarter that inspired the (rule against presidents lowering themselves to respond to criticism)--the deranged, lying left. [Paul Burgess, " [http://www.fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2006/102006/10282006/232595/printer_friendly Friends, Neighbors, and Countrymen Of the Left: I Hate Your Lying Guts] ", October 28, 2006, "Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star".]

Burgess subsequently complained that an edit to that essay made by the "Free Lance Star" without his permission, "...turned an opinion piece intended to be edgy into something gratuitously offensive." He has since refused to submit any further columns to that newspaper.

References