Disgraced Rove aide named top lobbyist for Focus on the Family
By Wendy NorrisBeing a serial plagiarist may no longer be the professional equivalent of a hair shirt. Look at Vice President Joe Biden. Good thing for ex-Bush administration political operative Tim Goeglein too. He’s been named the top Washington, D.C., lobbyist for Focus on the Family, according to a little-noticed “comings and goings” political column in the Fort Wayne, Ind., Journal Gazette.
Goeglein was personally recruited in 2001 by political mastermind Karl Rove to work in the Bush White House as chief liaison to conservative religious groups. There Goeglein rubbed elbows with some of the most powerful men in the evangelical movement — Focus on the Family’s James Dobson, Ralph Reed of the Christian Coalition, convicted Watergate felon Chuck Colson who runs Prison Fellowships Ministries and then-president of the National Association of Evangelicals Ted Haggard.“He is the key person that actually produced the evangelical vote in America,” Haggard told the Indianapolis Star. “It was Karl Rove’s initiative, but it was Tim that actually did it. When we call Tim, his office responds. He’s the one evangelical leaders across America have a relationship with.”
That was until Feb. 29, 2008, when ex-Fort Wayne News-Sentinel columnist-turned-blogger Nancy Nall stumbled across an odd reference in a Goeglein column written for her former paper. An ensuing investigation by the paper’s editors found he had plagiarized 20 of 38 columns and cited the works of such luminaries as the Dartmouth Review, Nixon speechwriter-cum-game show host Ben Stein and the Pope without credit. Goeglein resigned his position with the White House by that afternoon and has apparently been kicking around the nation’s capital until his political rebirth as Focus’ primo lobbyist.No word on just what he’ll be prowling the halls of Congress for on behalf of Focus’ many tax-exempt charitable subsidiaries; spokesman Gary Schneeberger hasn’t yet returned an e-mail inquiry. Though I am awfully curious if Goeglein’s pre-employment interview involved a good ol’ fashioned “spare the rod, spoil the child” whoopin’ by Dobson, who advocates corporal punishment for lying and misbehavior in his many parenting books.
Focus on the Family is the gift that keeps on giving. These people just won’t go away. It’s fading a little, the years of the Religious Right with James Dobson, Ted Haggard, Ralph Reed, Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, the Ex-Gays, Louis Sheldon – luminaries all. James Dobson seems to still be at it. If you haven’t ever seen it, take a look at Sheldon’s Traditional Values Coalition web site. Besides Abortionists, Homosexuals, Muslims, and Obama, they’re still after the Communists in Russia [and the "Obamunists"]. Here’s their "News" lineup:
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