President Bush’s chief speechwriter, Bill McGurn, punches his last White House time card today. POTUS said of NR’s former Washington Bureau Chief (he had the miserable distinction of working in a two-man office with me during the Bush 41 era) that “Bill is a serious thinker and a gifted writer whose command of language and knowledge of history have helped shape a wide variety of my speeches. I have counted on Bill to help me prepare State of the Union addresses, policy announcements, and speeches to the Nation. In all our work together, I have valued Bill’s creativity, insight, and sound judgment. And I have appreciated his friendship, generous spirit, and sense of humor” all of which he has by the bucket load.
Filling McGurn’s big shoes is the Marc Thiessen, who has already done heavy lifting at the White House these past three years, playing a major speechwriting role in his tenure (Marc previously was chief speechwriter for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and before that a top aide to Jesse Helms, whom he served as press spokesman for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee). Assisting Marc will be the Chris Michel, a talented writer who, like Bill Buckley, is a former Yale Daily News editor. Good luck to all.