White House Jesus-Freak-In-Chief Caught Plagiarizing

Plagiarism makes the baby Jesus cry ...He’s an administration official you’ve probably never heard of.  He’s in charge of placating the religious nutjobs that think Bush will have them raptured up any day now.  And now, he joins the ranks of conservative copycats like Ann Coulter and Ben “Box Turtle” DomenechNancy Nall:

I feel bad about what I’m going to do here.

I’ve had a lot of fun at Tim Goeglein’s expense over the last few months. Mean-spirited fun, certainly, but my problem with him has always been one of personal taste. In his columns for The News-Sentinel, my old newspaper, he personifies a certain sort of apple-cheeked Hoosier drippiness, which undoubtedly masks a core of white-hot ambition. I mean, he worked at the right hand of Karl Rove, and remains in the White House. But while he works in the West Wing, he chooses to write awful, turgid essays on the wonders of Hoagy Carmichael, deceased operatic composers and his parents’ marriage.

See Nancy.  See Nancy bust Timmy.  See Nancy bust Timmy after the jump.

This is so good.

My, my, my. Tim Goeglein, director of the White House office of public liaison, is a plagiarist.

Not an accidental or delicate one, either. The piece (Tim’s) goes on:

It can hardly be challenged that the United States of America is part of the narrative of European history. Europe is overwhelmingly the source, and some parts of Europe more than others: Our language, literature, legal tradition, political arrangements derive, demonstrably, from England. This Britain-America connection is central.

Check out the corresponding paragraph from a 10-year-old issue of the Dartmouth Review:

It can scarcely be challenged that the United States is part of the narrative of European history. It owes little or nothing to Confucius or Laotse or to Chief Shaka or to the Aztecs. At the margin it owes a bit to the American Indians, but not a great deal - corn, tobacco, some legendary material. But Europe is overwhelmingly the source. And some parts of Europe more than others: Our language, legal tradition, political arrangements derive, and demonstrably so, from England. 

Looks like Tim cleaned it up by taking out all the references to brown people.  Let’s see what else we’ve got.  Tim:

There have been many ways of answering the question: What is Europe? A handy way to think of the matter is the paradigm of “Athens” and “Jerusalem.” In this paradigm, those terms designate both the two cities we have all heard of but also two kinds of mind. The tradition designated “Athens” is associated with philosophy and with critical exercise of mind, with reason. The tradition associated with “Jerusalem” is associated with monotheism, with faith.

Dartmouth guy:

There have been many ways of answering the question, “What is Europe?” But a handy way to think of the matter is the paradigm of “Athens” and “Jerusalem.” In this paradigm, those terms designate both the two cities we have all heard of, and also two kinds of mind.

Well, Tim’s has more words, so at least he wrote some of it.

In closing, let me say something that requires no attribution:

Plagiarize,
Let no one else’s work evade your eyes,
Remember why the good Lord made your eyes,
So don’t shade your eyes,
But plagiarize, plagiarize, plagiarize -
Only be sure always to call it please ‘research’.

Copycat (Nancy Nall via Atrios)

24 comments:

And what wretched swill to be plagiarizing, too. Conservatives must learn quite young that method of debate whereby they support non-factual statements with evidence which consists of simple assertions that it is is; “doubtless,” “it is demonstrably so,” “it cannot be gainsayed,” all of which are shorthand for “it is not so.” The little Dartmouth Douche has mastered it, probably at the feet of Buckley, at al.

Most everything he stole was wrong or at best incomplete. The Constitution is a real hybrid governance instrument in terms of its provenance. One of the strongest influences was the Constitution of the Iroquois confederation. This is not the subject of esoteric scholarly debate. It’s just a fact made plain in the writings of voluble men on the spot like Ben Franklin.

http://usinfo.state.gov/scv/Archive/2005/May/17-246412.html

When can we send these assholes some blankets with smallpox?

Nice alt-text, blogenfreude. Are you sure that’s a dude though?

Careful Chain Saw, they have lots of anthrax and they’re not afraid to use it to make a point.

Another possible explanation for Tim’s plagiarism: it was a cry for help. He’s got a secret man-crush on the Unicorn and wants to become his next speech writer.

The name of the Dartmouth douche is Eugene Rosenstock-Hussey. There is a “brazen” joke in here somewhere that I do not yet have enough caffeine in my system to make.

So I leave it to you, my fellow cynics….

From the linked Washington Post article from December 2004:

“Goeglein will be an influential, if little-seen, player in coming years, too, working with conservatives to create private Social Security savings accounts, overhaul the tax code, outlaw same-sex marriage, and limit the number and size of lawsuits.”

Looks like he’s been just as successful during the second Bush term as most of the rest of the conservatives. Please keep him in Washington and far away from Indiana.

@DaveH: And Kentucky. Or Kentuckiana. Or wherever we’re at, Dave.

@blog: I have three Tom Lehrer CD’s queued up and ready to rock.

“The best way to become a successful writer is to read good writing, remember it, and then forget where you remember it from.”
Gene Fowler

Tim apparently neglected to note the operative word in Fowler’s quote: “good”

Are you sure you didn’t accidentally use a photo of Hugh Grant getting a blow job? In a church?

@nojo - Got The Vatican Rag? My favorite.
@litotes - considering that I got the back of Larry Craig’s head confused with the back of some Australian dude’s head earlier in the week, anything is possible.

@blog: Vatican Rag, of course, and “Poisoning Pigeons in the Park,” “New Math” — all the favorites.

Plus a couple of great CD bonus tracks from the Electric Company. Love the new South Park promos.

Hope this isn’t too OT, but here’s one of my fave plagiarism stories: When confronted with stealing from a lesser-known composer, G.F. Handel (Hallelujah Chorus guy) said something like “Sure, I stole his music, it was too good for him”.

Not the case here with Mr Timmy of course. That’s just one shithead copying master-race crap from another shithead in the never-ending gated-community conservative circle-jerk gavotte.

When confronted with stealing from a lesser-known composer, G.F. Handel …

No less than JS Bach stole from others - primarily Vivaldi, mostly violin and keyboard concerti. A noted musicologist once joked about visualizing Bach, late at night, composing by the light of a sheaf of burning Vivaldi manuscripts.

@Blogenfreude:

Chuckle. I didn’t know that old “no stops on his organ” Bach used uncleared samples too.

I’m going to plagiarize “apple-cheeked Hoosier drippiness”. I’m sure I’ll find a use for it somewhere.

@nojo: I’m kinda partial to “Masochism Tango”, but “Poisoning Pigeons” brings back fond memories as well.

I don’t know about y’all but I sure plan to steal the term “apple-cheeked Hoosier drippiness”. It has a nice ring to it and I’m quite sure I can use it somewhere.

3….2….1….

But writing your own stuff is HARD! (whine, throw tantrum)

oh…and blogenfruede: when I said ‘pig fucker’ earlier, I did mean it in the nicest way possible.

There’s some idiot calling himself “Chemnitz” over at Nancy’s blog accusing her of having an axe to grind, because she hasn’t taken a cudgel to Obama for having speechwriters prepare his speeches. Sheesh.
Nancy is a real journalist, and a fine example of how blog journalism kicks the living shit out of print and television these days.

blogen,
first of all, there is nothing new under the sun since ever.
therefore everything everyone says, does and writes is technically their own brand of plagerism.
someone show me a new color, that will be original.
and what’s with the bach bashing? he copied the best, yet made it it his own. you make him sound like vanilla ice.
and yet i heart vivaldi more than bach, so point taken. who was vivaldi impressed with and trying to imitate? everyone has a muse. and plagerism has many shades of grey. art and music included.

We’re mixing apples and oranges here; its not the same planet to compare the influences and inspirations and even imitations of an artist with a hack writer copying word for word another work he hopes is obscure enough that it will go unnoticed. The only artists I would tar with the accusation of flat out plagiarism would be Led Zeppelin. They have been succesfully sued so many times that if you look at the songwriting credits on early printings of their early albums and compare to the latest CDs you will find that they actualy had to change many of them to give credit to the people they ripped off.

“The most distinguishing feature of Bach’s music in manic plagiarism.”

Oops — that’s Peter Schickele on PDQ Bach. Carry on.

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