Once scandals took days or weeks to play out. But in the age of Google, a miscreant can be identified, accused, and given the boot in the time it takes you to nurse a mild hangover. Case in point — Timothy S. Goeglein, a treacly columnist for the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel, was accused of plagiarism by blogger Nancy Nall in an email to his paper last night, exposed publicly by Nall this morning, further instances of apparent plagiarism identified by commenters on Nall’s blog within minutes, and confessed and thrown under the bus by noon by the paper. Note that Goeglein has warned the paper that there may be other instances. That seems prudent.

Why is this notable, other than for the speed of Goeglein’s downfall?

Tim Goeglein is on the White House staff. He’s President Bush’s Deputy Director of the Office of Public Liason and tasked with — wait for it — the White House’s relationship with the religious community.

Ethics and morals (religious or not) aside, in a world with Google, he is too fucking stupid or self-destructive to be in politics.

Edited to add:  That’s some nice journalism by Nall, and the quick discovery of further apparent instances by her commenters demonstrates how the internet empowers individuals to feats of research previously undreamed of except by professional reporters.

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