Rove caught cheating in White House ethics class

>Archive - PWW Print Edition Archive - 2005 Editions - Nov. 12, 2005


 

Top aide seen looking at Cheney’s paper during pop quiz

Just days after President George W. Bush ordered the White House staff to take what was called a “refresher” course on ethics, his top aide Karl Rove was caught cheating during the first pop quiz given in the course, the White House confirmed today.

According to Marisa Clomens, the teacher who taught the refresher course, Rove was clearly seen craning his neck to copy answers off Vice President Dick Cheney’s paper during the pop quiz.

“Once I saw Mr. Rove looking at Vice President Cheney’s paper, I told him to put down his pencil and asked him to stay after class,” Clomens said. “I had him write ‘I will not leak the name of CIA officers’ 100 times on the blackboard.”

For President Bush, who clearly had hoped to send the message that he was serious about cleaning up the ethical mess at the White House, the news that his top aide had cheated off the vice president’s paper during a pop quiz comes as a public relations setback.

“The president doesn’t understand why Karl would go and do something like this,” one source said on Sunday evening. “The pop quiz didn’t even count that much towards his final grade.”

But according to the same source, the cheating incident raises an even more perplexing question: “If you were trying to get a good grade in ethics, why would you copy off Cheney’s paper?”

Andy Borowitz writes a daily humor column at borowitzreport.com.