Bush Aide Resigns Over Plagiarized Columns

The Washington Post reported on Saturday that President Bush’s special assistant quit after admitting to plagiarism in the columns he wrote.

According to the report, Timothy Goeglein, a 44-year-old Indiana native, wrote 38 columns between 2000 and 2008 in his hometown newspaper, the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel. Out of the 38, he used parts of other people’s writings in 20 pieces without giving credit to the sources.

In an e-mail addressed to News-Sentinel editor Kerry Hubartt, Goeglein reportedly acknowledged his misconduct and apologized for it.

“Today, Tim accepted responsibility for the columns published under his name in his local newspaper, and has apologized for not upholding the standards expected by the president," White House Press Secretary Dana Perino said in a statement. He added, "The president was disappointed to learn of the matter."

Goeglein`s actions were discovered by Nancy Nall, a Michigan-based blogger who formerly worked as a columnist for the News-Sentinel. She found that eight paragraphs of Goeglein`s column about college education had been taken almost verbatim from an article by Jeffrey Hart, a Dartmouth College professor, published in the Dartmouth Review a decade ago.

The Washington Post reported that Goeglein worked closely with former top White House aide Karl Rove and other key officials in outreach to conservatives, especially evangelicals and other Christians. The Fort Wayne News-Sentinel announced that it would no longer run his columns. Goeglein wrote more than 80 pieces for the past 20 years for the newspaper free of charge.

triplets@donga.com