I swore I wouldn’t write another word about Tim Goeglein unless someone paid me for it, but this is too good not to note. Be not afraid, all is forgiven:
At the weekly meeting of center-right leaders at American for Tax Reform on Wednesday morning, he received three rounds of applause from the packed room, including one standing ovation, as he asked for their forgiveness.
I just knew he’d land on his feet. K Street, here he comes. A happy ending for everyone.
Sue said on March 6, 2008 at 12:04 pm
So, has the suicide watch been suspended?
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michaelj said on March 6, 2008 at 12:09 pm
Please tell me you got paid for the Slate piece. KStreet? Probly Faux News.
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blogenfreude said on March 6, 2008 at 12:14 pm
K Street or one of those wingnut welfare “think tanks” … remember when Scooter quit? He went to Hudson, home of such bright lights as Robert Bork and Marie Josee-Kravis. Scooter would be a think tank “scholar” today but for that pesky conviction.
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Lex said on March 6, 2008 at 12:39 pm
Well, here’s a surprise. Not.
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Jeff said on March 6, 2008 at 1:16 pm
I’m not surprised, but i am very, very sad. And a little sick. Support, yes, even a job offer for your old friend, but a standing O? That’s just ridiculous.
Said the Republican.
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LAMary said on March 6, 2008 at 1:35 pm
Oh, pu-leez.
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Dexter said on March 6, 2008 at 1:36 pm
K Street. Perfect, and inevitable.
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Kristina said on March 6, 2008 at 3:18 pm
Nothing shocks me anymore.
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colleen said on March 6, 2008 at 3:43 pm
“YAY. Way to own up to doing the thing you knew better than to do in the first place”
A standing o. really.
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Jeff said on March 6, 2008 at 3:59 pm
*NOT* *NOT* *NOT* defending Goeglein, but looking around myself aghast — Jack Shafer, at our now favorite site “Slate.com” has just re-busted a New York Times reporter for plagiarism, and got a “yawwwwwnnnnn” response from a senior editor there, and i read in his links from that story today how Ian McEwan lifted big steaming chunks of “Atonement” (you know, the novel you haven’t read but can’t miss the PR for the movie, for which i’m sure he got paid a fortune) from another, more obscure memoirist — http://www.slate.com/id/2185847/.
And there’s the latest spate of made-up memoirs, which is kind of a different topic, but not really.
What the heck is going on, anyhow? This was pounded into me as the only capital offense in all of lit/crit/academia, and drawing and quartering for journalism — and i didn’t go to a j-school, either. But i’m feeling like it’s not only endemic, it’s being excused and passed off as no account all over the place.
Except for here! Hey, i’ll start defending Mitch Albom for original codswallop versus McEwan’s deathless, derivative prose.
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Kirk said on March 6, 2008 at 4:12 pm
As I said last week, it’s the American way.
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Scout said on March 6, 2008 at 4:34 pm
Remember folks, IOKIYAR. Seriously thinking I should forget idealism and switch parties.
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alex said on March 6, 2008 at 4:50 pm
He’s found his metier!
The Heritage Foundation, the Hudson Institute or any other purveyor of pseudoscholarship and stilted argument should be delighted to have him. As bereft of original thoughts and ideas as he is, Tim will surely fit in quite nicely.
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michaelj said on March 6, 2008 at 5:22 pm
Guy’s an asshole. BFD. Everybody connected to Q has lied their ass off. It’s what these dunbasses do for a living Ifr you’w cit tge niat bogus Kennyboy lyibf sack of shit ever appointed, what do you do? You lie your ass off.
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nancy said on March 6, 2008 at 6:07 pm
Michael, take a breath, and find the home row again.
Did a little freeway driving today, a fine place for thinking. A few thoughts, in no particular order:
** The tipping point of the Standing O. Some writer in Fort Wayne — can’t remember who — took on the city’s absurd generosity with the Standing O in a column. Basically, if a performer showed up and sustained a pulse through the performance, a F.W. audience would reward him or her with a Standing O. It’s an interesting phenomenon, because if you want to watch the artist’s bows and the person in front of you is standing, you have to stand, too. If you remain sitting while others around you are standing, you’re making a statement that you don’t think the performance was worthy of the S.O. Fort Wayne is a go-along-and-get-along place; you can see how people would get swept up.
I suspect a hard-core Republican audience is a unique animal at this moment in time. Their moment is passing, their house is crumbling, and they just handed the nomination to a guy many of them openly despise. The next day, here stands this young man. What’s his crime? Foot-tapping in an airport bathroom stall? Sex with a male prostitute? No. Pulling one over, 27 times, on a fading little newspaper in a state none of them ever visit. It’s like spitting on the sidewalk in a pouring rainstorm. Even if a few have a shred of conscience about intellectual crimes, everyone around them is rising. If they remain seated, there will be glares. Go along and get along. They rise to their feet.
(God, I need to start outlining a screenplay. This is comedy gold!)
** The power of a simple request for forgiveness. While no knee-bender m’self, this is one I fully understand. We’re all sinners. If someday, God forbid, that ugly incident with the Danish au pair should come to light, yes, even after the man of the house packed her off to Copenhagen first-class and with a fat wad of cash, praying her English skills never improve enough to talk about what happened — wouldn’t we want others to sympathize? Of course. Love thy neighbor, and let God sort ’em out.
** It’s war out there. Shoot this soldier for a minor infraction, and there’s one less soldier. These people need every stop-loss body they can muster.
I got a lot of hate mail this week, public and private, accusing me of ruining a man’s life and career, and depriving his children of sustenance. One suggested I make a monetary contribution to the family itself. It’s good to know it didn’t take long for the bad news to pass into the rear-view mirror. Congratulations to all.
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Anonymous said on March 6, 2008 at 6:16 pm
This is disturbing:
Perhaps Americans relish the excitement of Nazi rallies.
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KGMom said on March 6, 2008 at 6:37 pm
So much for trying to teach my college students that plagiarism doesn’t pay. Apparently it does.
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brian stouder said on March 6, 2008 at 7:56 pm
Agreed about the Standing O thing; there is a definite social dynamic involved, and a tipping point. When the first few people stand up, others instantly decide either to join or not. There might be a – what? – 10 second window (or maybe 5) – and then the first to stand feel compelled to sit down, or else everyone else joins them.
When we go to Pam’s mom’s Methodist church, they will sometimes have this or that member of the congregation sing….and if it is a child, people applaud at the end. But if it is an adult, there is stone silence at the end of the number.
I never know what is the proper response when it is – say – a teenager, and I always find it striking when a lady or gentleman finishes their tune and the awkward silence (awkward to me, anyway) descends
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Dexter said on March 6, 2008 at 9:18 pm
After 9:00 P.M. thread hi-jack.
Nancy, I think I recall your writing a column about winter cyclists in Fort Wayne. It seems the tone was one of respect for those who had to get around, probably because of no choice , or no car, or maybe the buses weren’t convenient. Forgive me if the writer was someone else.
I thought about that column today when I saw the video of the bomber who cycled into NYC’s Times Square, walked around a bit, and threw a bomb and left. I don’t know just what he was trying to accomplish, but he woke some people up, high above, in sleepy beds.
I applaud his method of transportation while I condemn the act of bombing. I don’t really laud him because New York City doesn’t get much snow anymore.
Here in Bryan, we always had a few hard cores, including me, who kept sturdy bikes around and we rode in all kinds of weather. Now a few must have gotten too old to negotiate that patch of ice or that hill of plowed snow in the bike lane.
Still, every winter, a few of us would be out. Until this winter.
Even I have given it up this year, it’s been two months since I even rode a block. When I get in the van to mail a letter now, I never see any of the old winter cyclists out.
But now I notice a new breed, a few people out on bikes in the snow! Thinner, younger folks, not too much younger, but younger. They’re on multi-speed thin-tire bikes, even, and mountain bikes. There are just a few , but the winter cyclist lives again! But I can’t stand it any more. I bought a new bike (to add to my collection and make the number 13) Saturday and I am going to ride it tomorrow no matter what the weather is.
After all, as Ho Chi Minh wrote:
GOOD DAYS COMING
Everything changes, the wheel
of the law turns without pause.
After the rain, good weather.
In the wink of an eye
The universe throws off
its muddy cloths.
For ten thousand miles
the landscape
Spreads out like
a beautiful brocade.
Gentle sunshine.
Light breezes. Smiling flowers,
Hang in the trees, amongst the
sparkling leaves,
All the birds sing at once.
Men and animals rise up reborn.
What could be more natural?
After sorrow comes happiness.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~[so wrote Uncle Ho]
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del said on March 6, 2008 at 9:33 pm
The social dynamics of a standing o, just weird. Reminds me of the Solomon Asch conformity experiments.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solomon_Asch
Conversely, it makes Colbert’s White House Press Corps dinner in ’06 even more remarkable. Man’s a comedic genius w/o fear.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSE_saVX_2A
That was a cultural tipping point to me.
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Harl Delos said on March 6, 2008 at 9:46 pm
brian stouder said:
At the Methodist church I grew up in, the dividing line was about age 12. That’s the age at which someone joins the church.
On rare occasions, an adult will get applause, but it’s usually when someone from the church moved to another community, and has come back for a visit. It’s a way of saying, “Missed you, glad you’re back.” And applause for kids is a way of saying to the parents, “You are SO blessed to have a kid like that.”
Otherwise, it’s sorta like the joke about the kid bent over his bed saying his prayers, and Mom says, “Pray louder, I can’t hear you,” and the kid says, “I wasn’t talking to YOU.” Songs aren’t supposed to be for the congregation to appreciate, but are a form of worship to God. At least in Methodist churches. If the silence makes you feel uncomfortable, please accept my apology for that, on behalf of everyone at a church I rarely attend these days.
In the 1970s, the Methodists and the Evangelical United Brethern churches merged to become the United Methodist church. Supposedly, there was no real difference between the churches; the EUB were sometimes called the “German Methodist Church” before that. But if you can still walk into a church and tell whether it used to be Methodist or EUB. Methodists were a lot more relaxed in style, and EUBers were a lot more formal in style.
I don’t think I was the only one disappointed by the merger. Twenty years after they merged, the membership of the merged church was less than the Methodists had by themselves before the merger.
The merger of churches and the merger of banks both seem to have similar motivations. Small banks have much higher profit margins; that’s because they know the people they are loaning to, and they don’t write off nearly so many loans. However, the president of a large bank gets paid a LOT more than the president of a small bank, so merge, they must.
These days, I take the Jewish attitude that the center of worship is the hearth. If I can share coffee, or waffles or whatever, with someone I am comfortable talking with, I figure God is enjoying the conversation as well, and we’re blessed.
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del said on March 6, 2008 at 10:29 pm
Amen.
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Jeff said on March 6, 2008 at 10:29 pm
“Love thy neighbor, and let God sort ‘em out.”
You da writer.
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SusanG said on March 6, 2008 at 10:48 pm
Cheap grace.
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michaelj said on March 7, 2008 at 4:17 am
There‘s so much Anti-feminism to go around. Why is it usually women on the drive-by?
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moe99 said on March 7, 2008 at 10:27 am
Late to this party, but Nancy, your comment in the thread was worth the price of admission. When you are hot, you sizzle!
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Wally Wilson said on March 7, 2008 at 4:58 pm
I’m thinking maybe special K street… If nothing else, he apparently got the clap(s), eh? ::ducking::
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Michael said on March 8, 2008 at 10:06 pm
Ho-lee … something tells me merrimac is never going to come back here.
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William Walters said on March 10, 2008 at 8:02 pm
Give it up folks. Everyone has moved on from this except Nancy and friends. No news here.
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Suzi said on March 11, 2008 at 8:23 pm
Give it up folks. Everyone has moved on from this except Nancy and friends. No news here.
Probably right. My husband and I couldn’t remember Goeglein’s name right away this evening — all that information got replaced by the damn Spitzer story. And after all of that guilty pleasure.
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