Is Regent embarrassed — or is Bush?

April 16, 2007

About a week ago, Slate’s Dahlia Lithwick noted a tidbit that the rest of us missed: TV preacher Pat Robertson’s Regent University boasts that 150 of its graduates, including former top DoJ aide Monica Goodling, are serving in some capacity in the Bush administration. Lithwick noted that this is “a huge number for a 29-year-old school.” That’s certainly true; it’s also a huge number for a small right-wing college led by a radical televangelist who believes Americans brought 9/11 upon themselves.

Lithwick knew about the 150 Regent grads because, as she put it, the school’s website “proclaims [the number] proudly” on its About Us page. That is, until this past week.

Reader J.S. alerted me to an interesting observation: shortly after Lithwick’s piece was published and the 150 figure quickly drew national attention (and a Paul Krugman column), Regent edited its About Us page — and removed the reference to the 150 Bush-hired alumni.

According to Google cache, as recently as April 12, Regent’s “facts” page included seven bullets noting graduates in various political positions, with the seventh noting, in all bold letters, “150 graduates serving in the Bush Administration.” As of yesterday, the same page is identical, except the seventh bullet has been deleted. Regent stopped bragging about staffing the administration almost immediately after someone from the secular media noticed.

I’m open to suggestion, but it seems to me there are two possibilities: either Regent is suddenly embarrassed to be associated so closely with the Bush administration, or the administration is suddenly embarrassed to be associated so closely with Regent. Did Karl Rove put in a call to his old friend Pat Robertson and ask him to change the website? Or did Regent realize that the Bush gang is too scandalous for even Robertson’s school?

Maybe some enterprising young reporter can ask Regent what prompted the change? I’d ask myself, but Regent doesn’t return my calls anymore.

Regent Madrassa Law School is now as toxic to the Bushies as the Bushies are to their old madrassa.

  • LOL! They’re each embarrassed to be seen with the other!

    Seriously? I’m betting this came from the White House, not the other way around…

  • My guess: Regent doesn’t want to embarass the Bush administration and thereby force them to call a halt to their wingnut hiring practices (which would hurt the school).

  • A third and likely possibility is that Regent/Bush people know that what they are doing is unethical and will be seen as such by the majority of the american public.

  • I’m with Anonymous Liberal.

    IMO Regent pulled their bragging page to protect their “project”.

    They’re not embarrassed, they’re trying to avoid getting caught taking over the government.

    Note to media slackers: If Regent takes over, your heads will roll first. You might want to do some reporting while you still can.

  • with Goodling gone, there is only 149 in the bush administration. Maybe they are correcting their website.

  • The third possibility is that Robertson has been trying to get everyone he can working in the government and fears that he will be less successful if people know how many he has gotten hired there already and so has decided to make it more of a covert operation. Like the dobbermans in ‘Animal Farm’ one day the pig will have a big surprise for the governing body. Notice there is no Regents Medical School which is much more in tune with Christian principles. Here Law School takes priority for obvious reasons, clearly demonstrating Pat Robertson’s motivations.

  • Maybe 150 people was overinflated bluster, and they took it down before anyone looked too closely.

  • A more honest Regent Law School Song as sung to Another Brick in the Wall

    We don’t get an education
    We don’t need a Constitution
    No silly Liberals in the classroom
    Fundies leave them Repubs alone
    Hey! Fundies! Beat them Dems with stones!
    All in all you’re just another Bushie on the Job.
    All in all you’re just another Bushie on the Job.

  • I can’t imagine why they won’t take your calls, Carpetbagger. Do you have a nasty tendency towards printing truth and calling bulls**t? Oh, you do! Duh, that’s why! Those tendencies aren’t allowed there….

  • Answer:
    Boasting of an association with a crimminal enterprise works if—and only if—others in the business of associating with criminal enterprises are the only living things on the planet to notice the boast.

    Question:
    How might 150 “graduates” of a certain “university” be compared to the inmates of a supermax prison?

    And y’all thought that the Great Karnak died with Johnny Carson….

  • I agree, bjobotts. Ralph Reed used to talk about stealth when referring to his plans, and I think the religious right realizes that it can’t forward its goals in honest, open debate or the electoral marketplace. It has to be stealthy because more people are moderate than insane and more people realize that stoning gays, outlawing abortion, eliminating privacy and enforcing religion are dumb ideas and always have been. Hence, Regent knows it needs to get off the radar if its mission is to succeed.

  • A new version of an old song (with many many more verses to come)

    150 Regent grads to fall
    150 Regent grads
    Take one down and shout it around
    149 Regent grads to fall

  • Jon Karak:

    Agreed.

    Given Robertson’s recent boasting of gaining superhuman strength from drinking his own a protein shake (that you can order from the convenience of your couch just by calling this 800 number) and his past boasting of having “insider” status within our government and with other heads of state, I wouldn’t at all be surprised to learn that the number of Regent grads working for Bush is far, far less than the purported 150.

    If the number is 150…or even close to 150….it explains an awful lot of why this seems to be a never ending show amateur hour.

    But look on the brightside: these jackasses have set the bar so frikkin’ low that an awful lot of praise will be given to Democratic administration that will follow if they merely choose a staff that can think and remain conscience for an extended period of time.

  • Maybe 150 people was overinflated bluster, and they took it down before anyone looked too closely. —Comment by Jon Karak

    I think that is very possible. Robertson loves to self-promote and take credit for things others do. I for one would like to see some of the details of this incredible number of fifth-rate law students being hired for important jobs. Perhaps some of them are janitors and kitchen workers. I even heard that Ms. Goodling had not yet passed the bar, which raises quite a few other questions.. I think the details of that bold statement will say a lot about both Robertson and the Bush administration.

  • #17

    From an 11/1/99 Richmond Times Dispatch report, “886 Pass State Bar Exam”:

    “Eight hundred eighty-six people passed the Virginia Bar Examination in July. Those passing represented 70.7 percent of the 1,254 candidates taking the test. They include:

    …Monica Marie Goodling, York Haven, Pa.;”

  • Darren,
    I got a really nasty visual when you wrote of Robertson “drinking his own a protein shake.” Now I need a brainwash with clorox to get rid of it. If I get the mental picture, you all get the mental picture! LOL

  • Oops! Link to Monica Goodling’s resume in internet archives posted incorrectly.

    Assuming it’s real, that is one priceless resume. She lists “Dorm Council” as one of her “Leadership” entries. Too funny.

  • Wow! That resume from Monica Goodling is very telling. How did she ever land such a high ranking job with a basically non existent work history? The age old question is who is she sleeping with, but the better one is what was the person who hired such a novice smoking? Since when did someone who rated only in the top twenty percent (That’s a low B) get hired as third in command at justice? Notice it took her three tries at different law schools to finish. All of them expensive programs where a person can buy one’s way in. Notice that the only paid experience she has is coaching a swim team and working at the front desk of a conference center for a weekend. Nice life she has.

  • Embarrassment requires some sense of shame, not possible with Pat or George.

    My guess is they took it down because they don’t want to feel persecuted because that damn liberal media is going to see who is placed where, and what their qualifications are, and what their current jobs entail. And we all know that will be very bad for both parties.

    Hopefully some bored and ambitious reporter with track these people down so we can see how deep Robertson’s influence has been on the government.

    Maybe Pat ‘I can squat a zillion tons’ Robertson was stretching the truth when he said 150, but for some reason I don’t think so.

  • A search on Google and whitehouse.gov turn up an interesting name: Lisa Marie Kruska, a proud Regent graduate.

    She was nominated to be be Assistant Secretary of Labor (Public Affairs). Prior to her government work, ,she was as Vice President of Accounts for Creative Response Concepts in Alexandria, Virginia.

    What work experience at Creative Response Concepts qualifies her to be the Asst Sec of Lab? How about a client list of RNC, Swiftboat, Discovery Institute (intelligent design!), etc?

    http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Creative_Response_Concepts

  • Okay … I thought my Google cache page and CBs were different. Not so much.

    I may know how to use the Internet, but my reading comprehension is obviously still a work in progress …

    **puts on pointy hat and sits in corner**

  • In post # 23….”Hopefully some bored and ambitious reporter with track these people down so we can see how deep Robertson’s influence has been on the government.”

    Actually I do hope someone takes the time to track them down and see what positions they are holding and question their qualifications. Makes you wonder what those graduates have been up to in their respective positions.

  • Oh no—Monica’s got a minor from Messiah—in chemistry. Looks like good religious-zealot suicide-bomber material to me.

    Deal with THAT, Drudge Report….

  • Petorado, in post #28…. thanks for the Maher link…. it is certainly worth watching… I got a good laugh out of it.

  • Interesting to see that the Regent web page has now restored the Bush reference, but no longer bolded. They’re certainly watching what people are saying about them!

  • Regent University plays hide and seek with 150 Bush admin alumni — Now they’re here, now they’re not. ?

    As late as 6 April, 2007, Regent University’s “facts” web page proudly boasted that they had:
    “150 graduates serving in the Bush Administration.”

    Between April 6 and April 13, the University removed that statement from their web site and, for at least several days, (April 13-16) there was no statement listed at all about any Regent U. graduates working for the Bush administration.

    Sometime on April 16, a new statement appeared on their “facts” page:
    “150 students have served in the Bush administration.”
    http://www.regent.edu/general/about_us/facts.cfm

    Apparently, not all of the 150 are still “serving” Bush, but does this statement also mean that some of the 150 “students” never actually graduated from the U?

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