Perhaps no job in Corporate America could ever fully prepare you for a job with the federal government.
Or more particularly, the United States Senate, or the Pentagon, or the white house.
Someone who worked in all three of those venues in the early 2000s will tell you, it’s not just a different world, it’s a different Universe.
Matt Latimer started his Washington career working in the US Senate – at one point working alongside Ann Coulter – before taking a job at the Pentagon as a speechwriter for then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
More below video:
Latimer joined the White House in 2007 as a speechwriter for President George W. Bush, a position he held until resigning a year and a half later. disillusioned with how the president and his advisors handled the financial crisis.
A year later, Latimer wrote a memoir he called Speech-less. He and I met one day that fall in the cafe at our local Borders bookstore to talk about it.
So here now, from 2009, Matt Latimer.
Matt Latimer now heads a literary and public relations firm he co-founded in Northern Virginia.