CHARACTER COUNTS:

Return to Grace: Tim Goeglein, President George W. Bush's prodigal aide, has found redemption. (Jonathan Aitken from the October 2011, American Spectator)

Goeglein was caught red-handed as a serial plagiarizer in the columns he was writing for his Indiana hometown newspaper. He immediately resigned from the administration, never expecting to see George W. Bush again.

But behind the public departure came private forgiveness. Summoned to the Oval Office for what he expected to be "a woodshed moment," Goeglein was welcomed by President Bush with the words "Tim, I have known mercy and grace in my own life and I am offering it to you now....I want you to know that you are forgiven."

Seating his guest in the chair of honor by the fireplace usually reserved for visiting heads of state, the president talked and prayed for 20 minutes with his prodigal aide. A few days later Goeglein was invited back to the White House with his wife and two young sons for a second session of presidential sympathy. "The grace he showed me upon that exit was a reflection of his faith in Jesus Christ," writes Goeglein whose journey toward healing and peace began soon afterward.

Not all powerful leaders walk their talk. One of the most attractive features of his memoir, The Man in the Middle: An Inside Account of Faith and Politics in the George W. Bush Era (B&H Books), is the intimate portrait Goeglein paints of his president as a man of genuine humility and deep spiritual commitment. This is so different from the cynical and often rather shallow media image of George W. that the question will be asked: Is this revisionism for real? [...]

TIM GOEGLEIN WORKS HARD to persuade his readers that George W. Bush was a good president. Opinions on this will differ. But where this account really succeeds is in allowing Bush to emerge as a good man. He comes over as thoroughly decent and devout. He never dissembles. He has an exemplary family life. His prayerful faith is sincere. He may have delegated too much on economic issues but he delivered on his own highest priority, which was strengthening America in the prevention of terrorism at home.

These qualities may well have helped to bring out the values voters. Like many of his former targets, Goeglein responds instinctively to George W. Bush's virtues even though he can be myopic about his hero's faults. But the author evidently feels, as the biographer of Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone said of his subject: "It was the character breathing through the sentences that counted."

Posted by oj at October 19, 2011 6:57 AM
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