http://thinkprogress.org/2007/06/26/giuliani-regent/Giuliani To Regent University: ‘The Amount Of Influence You Have Is Really, Really Terrific’
Today, former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani spoke at Pat Robertson’s Regent University. In the opening of his speech, he congratulated Robertson for the “influence” Regent has:
Thank you very, very much, Pat. Thank you for the very kind words and the introduction. And thank you for having me here.
I am very, very impressed with Regent University, when I consider that it was founded just a short while ago. The number of graduates that you have and
the amount of influence that you have is really, really terrific.
And of all the many things that you’ve done — and there have been many, and many contributions…Regent is ranked a “tier four” school by US News & World Report, “the lowest score and essentially a tie for 136th place.” Yet approximately one in six Regent graduates are employed in government work, and 150 serve in the Bush administration.
Monica Goodling, the former top aide to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales who graduated from Regent’s law school, perhaps best exemplifies the “terrific” influence Regent is exerting on the nation. Last month, Goodling admitted to the Senate Judiciary Committee that she had “taken inappropriate political considerations into account” while hiring career employees at the Justice Department. At one point she even pressured Michael Battle, head of the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys, to replace two long-standing Justice officials with “a fellow Regent law school graduate.”
The “amount of influence” that Regent has had is a testimony to the willingness of some of its graduates to place partisan loyalties over principle.
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney also recently spoke at Regent and commended Robertson for his “dedication to strengthening and then nurturing the pillars of this community and our country.”