Timothy Goeglein

Timothy Goeglein (pronounced GEGG-line) (born January 6, 1964) was a special assistant to the President of the United States and was Deputy Director of the Office of Public Liaison from 2001 to 2008. He resigned following discovery of plagiarism in opinion pieces he wrote for a newspaper in his home town.

Early years

A descendant of Macedonian immigrants [ [http://www.macedonian.org/Convention/default.asp MPO] ] [ [http://www.news-sentinel.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070918/EDITORIAL/709180330 A Guest Column by Timothy S. Goeglein with the statements "since we are Macedonian"] ] , Goeglein grew up in Fort Wayne, Indiana. His family had few strong political commitments, and attended a liberal Lutheran church. At the age of 12, he was a host of WANE-TV’s "News for Little People"; as a sophomore at Paul Harding High School in Fort Wayne, he became a producer of WOWO radio’s "Mikeside," a Sunday-evening mix of student-produced newscasts and interviews.Ashley Smith, [http://www.news-sentinel.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080229/BREAKING/619147576 "Goeglein's resignation a seeming end to meteoric rise"] , "Fort Wayne News-Sentinel", February 29, 2008]

Goeglein attended Indiana University Bloomington, majoring in journalism and political science. His first year after college was spent in broadcast media. In 1985, he interned for Indiana Republican Senator Dan Quayle. In the late 1980s, he began working as a deputy press secretary for Republican Senator Dan Coats, also of Indiana.

In early 1999, Goeglein became a spokesman for Presidential candidate Gary Bauer, a conservative Republican. [Todd S. Purdum, [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A06E4D61338F933A25757C0A96F958260&scp=16&sq=Goeglein&st=nyt "Elizabeth Dole Is Shunning 'Dead End' Abortion Fight"] , "New York Times", April 10, 1999] After Bauer dropped out of the race in February 2000, Goeglein was recruited for the George W. Bush presidential campaign; he and his wife and their two young sons moved to Austin, Texas in 2000 for that purpose.

White House years

Beginning in 2001, Goeglien headed the Office of Public Liaison, one of four White House political departments run by Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove. In December 2004, the "Washington Post" summarized his job as "to make sure conservatives are happy, in the loop and getting their best ideas before the president and turned into laws."Jim VandeHei, [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A23206-2004Dec23.html "Pipeline to the President For GOP Conservatives: Give and Take Flows Through Public Liaison Aide"] , "Washington Post", December 24, 2008] Writing in the "New York Times", reporter David D. Kirkpatrick described him as "Mr. Rove's legman on the right". Edwin Feulner, president of the Heritage Foundation, said in June 2004 that he and Goeglein saw each other two or three times a week, and "If I have a message I want to get to Rove or the administration, I will scribble out a note to Tim, and within 24 hours I will get a response back. For lots of things, he is sort of one-stop shopping for a point of access to the administration."David D. Kirkpatrick, [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A0CE6DC1438F93BA15755C0A9629C8B63 "White House Aide Takes On Role As Bush's Eyes and Ears on Right"] , "New York Times", June 24, 2008]

Goeglein helped establish the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, and the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. A White House statement said that he also "played an important role in the confirmation of Supreme Court Justices Samuel Alito and John G. Roberts." [http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2008/02/20080229-9.html "Statement by the Press Secretary"] , February 29, 2008, retrieved March 9, 2008] He represented the Bush administration at the funeral services for Reverend Jerry Falwell in May 2007. Goeglein said that Falwell was a "great friend of this administration" and "a force of nature." [ [http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2007/05/falwell_funeral.html "Falwell Funeral Fails to Draw Top Republicans"] , "ABC News", May 22, 2007]

2008 resignation

Beginning in the 1985, Goeglein wrote guest columns that appeared on the editorial page of the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel, a home town newspaper. He was not paid for any of these. [http://newssentinel.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080301/NEWS/803010303 "Internal review: 20 of Goeglein's columns plagiarized"] , "Fort Wayne News-Sentinel", March 1, 2008, retrieved March 9, 2008]

In late February 2008, journalist Nancy Nall Derringer noticed a 2008 column by Goeglein that included the name "Eugene Rosenstock-Hussey". Because "this name was so goofy, just for the hell of it, I Googled it". [http://nancynall.com/2008/02/29/copycat/ NancyNall.com "Copycat"] ] . She found the piece to be almost word-for-word identical to a 1998 piece by Jeffrey Hart in the Dartmouth Review. [cite web
url=http://www.slate.com/id/2185657/
title=Gone in 60 Seconds: How my blog started the avalanche that buried presidential aide Tim Goeglein
first=Nancy Nall
last=Derringer
publisher=Slate
date=2008-03-03]

On February 28, 2008, Derringer notified an editor of the "News-Sentinel", and wrote about Goeglein's plagiarism the next morning on her website. Readers of the website and staffers at the "News-Sentinel" found that at least 20 of the 38 pieces written by Goeglein between 2000 and 2008 had instances of plagiarism. By mid-afternoon of February 29, 2008, CNN reported the story. The White House issued a press release later that afternoon stating that President Bush was "disappointed to learn of the matter, and he was saddened for Tim and his family. He has long appreciated Tim's service, and he knows him to be a good person who is committed to his country." The press release said that the President had accepted Goeglein's resignation.

Goeglein admitted that portions of the 2008 column were used from another source without attribution. He apologized to the editors of "The News-Sentinel" and also said there might be other columns that contained plagiarized material. As of March 3, the paper had found a total of 27 columns with plagiarism, the earliest in 1995. [ [http://www.newssentinel.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080303/NEWS/803030320 "Plagiarism 'all my fault': Goeglein; News-Sentinel found at least 27 guest columns used others' material"] "Fort Wayne News-Sentinel", March 3, 2008]

References