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Introducing Rich Galen
By Bill White
 
(Marietta, Ohio, October, 2002)  My thanks to Nancy Hollister for your kind words, and to Marilyn Ashcraft for the opportunity to stand before this audience for the first time to get a first-hand look at what Nancy has been doing for as long as I remember.
 
I'm pleased and honored to have the opportunity to introduce Rich Galen, and to welcome Rich back to Marietta. . . the start of it all for you, and the start of it all for so many of you who have put your beliefs on the line and stood for election.
 
Earlier this week I asked Rich if he wanted to exercise editorial control over my introductory comments. He declined, but went on to say it was perfectly appropriate to use His Royal Highness early. And often.
 
I first met Rich before he was His Royal Highness, of course, when he was just Rich Galen, the smart-ass from Livingston, New Jersey, in the days when he was - as a former Marietta mayor once said - simply a Royal Pain.
 
For over three years Rich has published a three-day-a-week political column at mullings.com, reaching over 350,000 people per month.
 
Through Mullings, our Marietta connection to Rich remains, and we see the same Rich Galen who once reported news and wrote daily commentaries for WMOA Radio, the same Rich Galen who took the idea of journalism to heart, who took other journalists, local politicians and local institutions to task through broadcast news, combining skepticism and irreverence with wit and humor, and leaving a legacy of very solid and objective news reporting in our small town which, by the way, could use a healthy renewal in our local media. Tomorrow would be a good time to start.
 
Rich Galen’s career in and out of politics is well documented on his web site under the category "Shameless Self Promotion".
  • Press Secretary to then Congressman and Senator Dan Quayle
  • Press Secretary to House Republican Whip Newt Gingrich
  • Executive director of GOPAC
  • He was a partner with the DSC Group, a Capitol Hill PR Firm
  • He led the expansion of the Emerging Markets Group of Ross Perot's Electronic Data Systems into Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Turkey, Israel, and Egypt
  • He managed a staff on three continents, through four time zones, three work weeks, and four languages, armed with the skills he took with him from his beloved alma mater, liberal arts then and now, Marietta College, and always with swift catlike movements and piercing green eyes.
Rich is a regular guest on Fox, and you've seen him, tongue in cheek, on all major cable news networks, as well as the "Today" show, "Good Morning America," "Nightline" and "Larry King Live."
 
Once an election loser who actually lost a Marietta City Council race by one vote, (before he won another by many votes), Rich married a townie, Susan Galen, who attacked his shyness with patience and warmth, allowing him to fulfill his potential to the point that he now carries his own make-up to the green room.
 
This month, Rich and Susan, a Marietta High graduate, will celebrate their 30th anniversary. (Anniversary subscriptions to mullings.com will be accepted on the secret decoder ring from now through pledge night.) Rich and Susan live in Old Town, Alexandria Virginia. Their son Reed works for President Bush in the White House advance office.
 
Rich, The U.S. House of Representatives late this afternoon approved a resolution giving your friend and our President George Bush the authority to use force against Iraq.
 
Tonight, I'm pleased and honored to say it one more time: You're on the air. Tell us all about it.