“If I only had two seconds to tell you why I’m here, I’d have to say this: I want to leave the world a better place than I found it. Tough assignment, but, worth a try.”
–Monica Goodling on her Regent University homepage:
When Monica Goodling’s name erupted into the news last week, the mainstream press discovered suddenly that Pat Robertson’s Regent University exists. Not only that, the press learned that it has made a deep footprint in George W. Bush’s Washington.
Since Robertson’s failed presidential campaign, coverage of him has largely focused on his mercurial and bizarre personality. He seemed only to appear in the news when one of his many entertainingly outrageous gaffes or false prophecies earned publicity. While Robertson’s hysterical episodes deserved all the coverage they generated, with a few notable exceptions, the mainstream press habitually ignored his political machinations. Robertson and his cadres exploited this lack of scrutiny to quietly erect a sophisticated and far-reaching political network that today propells the Christian right’s ongoing march through the institutions.
The mainstream press could not have made its recent discovery of Robertson’s influence on its own, of course. As is so often the case, they needed a little push from the blogosphere and independent media. I am confident enough to claim at least a small portion of credit for moving this story forward when I reported here and on my blog that Goodling was among 150 Regent grads currently working in the Bush administration.
Days after the Goodling-Regent connection was introduced by the liberal blogosphere, the New York Times noted that Goodling “is a 1995 graduate of Messiah College in Grantham, Pa., and received her law degree at Regent University in Virginia Beach, according to many Web site postings.”