`Working in the eye of the storm': Tim Goeglein pretended as a boy to be a White House news correspondent. Today he finds himself working inside those walls as a special assistant to the president

0 Comments | Insight on the News, May 20, 2002 | by Stephen Goode

Insight: Did you have a particular correspondent in mind?

TG: I was always a great admirer of two people. I continue to believe to this day that World War II correspondent Ernie Pyle was the greatest American print journalist. I think he was a commanding prose stylist without peer in his ability to evoke the horror of war and the way Americans reacted to the war. He was also from my home state of Indiana and, as fate would have it, I am a graduate of the Ernie Pyle School of Journalism at Indiana University.

Electronically, I thought there was no greater correspondent than Edward R. Murrow. Parents of a friend of mine had albums of the recorded broadcasts of Murrow, so I used to listen to those over and over again.

Insight: You got to practice journalism pretty young.

TG: I was asked when I was in high school to do a 15-minute interview program for WOWO-AM, a 50,000-watt radio station in my hometown of Fort Wayne. This particular program aired in 28 states and, because of its reach, I had the chance to interview people not only from all over the nation but all over the world.

I began the interview program when I was a freshman in high school [and continued] through college and through my first job, which was as a television producer in Fort Wayne. In fact I continued for a number of years even after I moved to Washington.

Insight: Who were some of your favorite interviews?

TG: Ronald Reagan, when he was president. I thought that was very cool. Henry Kissinger. Walter Cronkite. William F. Buckley Jr. One of my particular favorites was Daniel Barenboim, the conductor and pianist.

Insight: When did you decide you were conservative and Republican?

TG: I never had a political epiphany, I just was always genetically conservative and comfortable in the Republican Party. But there was an experience that got me interested in politics.

When I was in high school, a geometry teacher asked me if I would be interested in attending a White House conference in Indianapolis on youth and family. This was when Jimmy Carter was president.

I attended that conference and spent most of the time there being alternately offended and astounded by what I was hearing. That was during the late 1970s, and it was very clear that this conference was not designed for real people to give their input on the state of the American family, but was a platform for several self-appointed experts who had a very liberal view of what the family should become. I thought, "They are not going to change my view on the foundational importance of the family."

Really, my interest in politics dates from that time, because I thought to myself, "I really should be more interested and more involved in policy as it's being formulated."

Insight: What is it like to work for George W. Bush?

TG: I am honored and privileged. I think President Bush is in a line of very thoughtful, proactive conservative presidents who include John Adams, Calvin Coolidge, Ronald Reagan. We have the first president with an MBA degree, and he is an impressive manager. He's very interested in measuring results, and there is no lack of clarity, which I think makes it easier for those of us who work here. We know what the expectations are. They are always high, and we know exactly what they are.