Tim Goeglein

Disclaimer: This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity and readability. Filler words were removed, sentence structure was improved, and formatting was adjusted while preserving the original meaning and conversational tone. Henry Harrison: I want to welcome to the show today Mr. Tim Goeglein. It’s a real honor to have him on Entrepreneurs, Business, and Finance. Hello, Tim. Tim Goeglein: It’s great to be with you, Henry. Thanks for welcoming me onto the program. Henry Harrison: Before we get into everything we want to cover—Tim is an author, a speaker, and for a long time has been involved with the highest levels of government in Washington, D.C., where he is now on a rare casual day at home. Tim hasn’t heard this story from me directly, but my dad—who has passed away now—was also in Washington. I grew up in Arlington, Virginia. You were at the George W. Bush White House, and my dad and you had what we’ll call a business relationship and became friends. My dad had to retire, then he got dementia, and you continued to have lunch with him. Eventually he couldn’t go to lunch without someone going with him, so I went with him. Then my mom went because my dad couldn’t go, and then we continued. My mom said to me: “I’m not quite sure why Tim Goeglein is still having lunch with your father. Your father is retired. He’s not very with it anymore. He really can’t help Tim.” And she said, “I’m sure it’s because Tim is just a genuinely nice person.” And I believe at one point you told me, “Your father was my best friend. I really admired your father. I decided to keep it going.” I think that says a lot about your character. Tim Goeglein: Wow. I guess I could say like Jack used to do: thank you, and good night. I’ll be levitating for the next six months on that story. But I’m honor bound to say something important: your parents were great friends, and it’s such a rarity. You’re right—Washington can begin in business and then either graduate to nothing or graduate to authentic friendship. Ours was authentic friendship. Friendship shouldn’t be based on whether the other person is physically or mentally 100 percent fit. It’s that you enjoy that person’s company. One of my favorite writers, C.S. Lewis, said authentic friendship begins when you say, “What, you too? I thought I was the only one.” That was the moment your father’s—and eventually your mother’s—and now yours and my friendship began. You have a chemistry you can’t replicate, and you realize you’re not the only one. Henry Harrison: What a great way to put it. I don’t have many people on the show with Wikipedia pages. People can look you up because you’ve been, and still are, in contact with high levels of government. Why don’t you start by telling us about growing up in Indiana? You majored in political science, you interned early for a congressman and senator, and now you’re in a nonprofit as vice president. You’re still involved in legislative affairs, and you also focus on family values through Focus on the Family. Let’s go back to the beginning. You didn’t start out at the White House. Tim Goeglein: I started in what I lovingly call the center of the universe: Fort Wayne, Indiana. We’re all from somewhere, and I love where I’m from. I was born and raised in a happy home, which means for all my writing I’ll never be a great novelist. I grew up in a happy home. My parents married for love. I hit the lottery in the parents department. My parents were both born in 1937. My mother is deceased. My father is my best friend and is still alive and in good health. We had a small family business, and I consider it one of the great honors of life to be raised in a family business. I had a wonderful upbringing. From a young age I was interested in a combination of people, politics, and the press. Journalism was my first love. I went to Indiana University in Bloomington to the Ernie Pyle School of Journalism, named for the great World War II correspondent and a native of my home state. Then providence clears its throat in all of our lives. The direction you think you’re going turns out not to be the direction you’re going. I got a call from a friend of a friend who said, “Why don’t you apply for an internship in the office of Senator Dan Quayle?” At the time, he was a new senator and the youngest U.S. senator from Indiana. I applied and got it. That was my first summer in Washington. I met young people from all over the country and the world. Above all, I met people from parts of America I hadn’t thought about. I learned to love the geographical diversity of our country. The next summer I interned again—this time in the House for Dan Coats. I also interned at NBC News in Washington on weekends. It was a wonderful summer. I graduated, became a television news producer, and within a year Dan Quayle became Vice President. Dan Coats became U.S. senator from Indiana and asked me to come back as deputy press secretary, then press secretary. I stayed in the Senate for ten years—which is almost unheard of now. Dan Coats later left the Senate and kept his promise to term-limit himself. I thought I was done with politics. But Dan told me, “You’re making a mistake. You’ve worked on this end of Constitution Avenue. Have you ever thought about joining a presidential campaign?” I took his advice. I joined a small campaign that didn’t go far. Then I got a call from Governor George W. Bush’s office and was offered a job with the Bush for President campaign. My wife and I and our two sons moved to Austin. We lived through 36 days in Florida during Bush v. Gore, when nobody won. Then George W. Bush won. Carl Rove—someone I’d only met twice—offered me a position as special assistant to the President of the United States. That’s where I met your dad and mom. I was at the White House for almost eight years. And for the last 16 years I’ve been in Washington as one of the vice presidents at Focus on the Family. In sum, that’s me from boyhood until three seconds ago. It’s been an interesting and privileged life, and I say that with humility. Henry Harrison: I’m looking over because I want to read a quote from Wikipedia. One power broker in Washington said: “If I have a message I want to get to Rove or the administration, I scribble out a note to Tim, and within 24 hours I have a response.” That’s an interesting place to be in history. Tim Goeglein: I give thanks to God, and to my extraordinary wife, and to mentors. One of the real blessings of my life was being hired by Carl Rove and given entrée to President George W. Bush. I did not take it lightly. My primary job was to accurately reflect the president’s policies to influential groups and institutions. My second job was to bring back, with pinpoint accuracy, what those groups believed about those policies. That’s a healthy way to navigate policymaking: communicate clearly outward, and listen carefully inward. Henry Harrison: You also shared a story when you spoke in Dallas—something I didn’t know about my dad until you told it. My dad lectured with Justice Rehnquist one summer, and then lectured with Justice Scalia for years. You said my dad called you the night Rehnquist died to make sure the White House knew. Tim Goeglein: That is one of the most memorable nights of my life. We were getting ready for bed. It was a little after 10 p.m., and our home phone rang. That usually doesn’t signal happy news. It was your father. He was formal by nature, and warm-hearted once you knew him. He thought deeply about important things and had a gift for friendship. One of his friends was Chief Justice William Rehnquist. Your father told me the Chief Justice had died, and that the ramifications would be enormous. I called a trusted ally at the White House, who said: “Now wait a minute. I just told the leader of the free world the Chief Justice has died. Are we certain?” I told him I was absolutely certain—I’d heard from the most reliable source I could imagine. We waited for the official announcement, and it came. It was a reminder that in moments like that, sources and trust matter. Your father was a critical source on one of the most consequential transitions of those years. Henry Harrison: Would you share the mission of Focus on the Family, and your role? Tim Goeglein: In the moral and social revolution of the 1970s, it became increasingly unpopular to say certain basic things: marriage is good, parenting is good, children matter, divorce hurts children, and family stability matters. Into that stepped Dr. James Dobson, a well-known child psychologist. He founded Focus on the Family to support marriage, family, parenting, human life, religious liberty, parental rights, and related issues. Today, Focus is often one of the first places people call when they’re in trouble: a child’s suicide, a spouse leaving, foster care or adoption challenges, addiction, and many other things that impact families. We also provide resources for healthy marriages and healthy parenting. We have a modest public policy operation in Washington, and a global footprint across more than a hundred countries. Henry Harrison: And legislative affairs? Tim Goeglein: Washington is a city of relationships. My role is to build bridges—with people who agree with us and people who do not. It’s important to have relationships with members of Congress, senior staff, and the policy ecosystem. People are often surprised that a lot of government is run by young staffers. It’s a youthful city. In a hyper-polarized time, there are still excellent people who want to ask: what are the practical implications of policy for real people? I try to reflect what Focus believes, whether you’re in a red state or a blue state, and keep relationships strong so that when issues arise, we can be part of constructive outcomes. Henry Harrison: Let’s wrap with your books. You’ve written A Perfect Union, American Restoration, Stumbling Toward Utopia, and you have more work coming. Give us the quick overview. Tim Goeglein: The first book was The Man in the Middle: Faith and Politics in the George W. Bush Era. It’s a memoir of the Bush years and why faith mattered in those years—domestically, foreign policy, and security. The second book is American Restoration. I’m an optimist, but not a careless one. I believe our country is going through a difficult time, but restoration is possible. The book draws on other polarizing eras in our history and how America came through them stronger. The third is Toward a More Perfect Union: The Moral and Cultural Case for Teaching the Great American Story. It defends historic literacy and argues that cultural amnesia is dangerous for a free society. It also offers practical ways to increase historic literacy for young people. The fourth is Stumbling Toward Utopia. It looks at where the ideas of the moral and social revolution of the 1960s came from and what they mean for society today. Henry Harrison: I recommend the books. Tim Goeglein—published author, leader, and vice president at Focus on the Family—thank you for coming on the show and for your friendship and your work. Tim Goeglein: It’s a treasured friendship with you, Henry. It’s a luxury to spend time talking about big ideas. I never bet against the United States of America. Onward. Henry Harrison: Fantastic. Thank you very much. Tim Goeglein: A real pleasure, Henry. Thank you.