Do You Have What It Takes To Work For Frank Luntz?

Have you ever plagiarized a term paper, or denied sending a threatening e-mail to your ex-girlfriend? If so, you may have what it takes to work for pollster Frank Luntz.

Ernie Fletcher's deputy campaign manager and congressional press secretary has resigned after the Kentucky congressman learned that the aide, while attending college four years ago, was found responsible by a university board for threats sent to the school's newspaper editor.

In an interview Sunday, eight days after his departure, Nicholas Mirisis maintained his innocence but said he resigned to prevent embarrassment and distraction for Fletcher, the Republican nominee for governor.

While a student at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte, Mirisis admitted plagiarizing a term paper, which set off events that led to his suspension.

...

Actually, Mirisis completed his term as student-body president in spring 1999. That summer he resigned from the presidency of the association of UNC student governments.

That resignation came after the Charlotte campus newspaper revealed his academic fraud and the newspaper's editor, a former girlfriend of Mirisis, accused him of sending an e-mail that threatened her with sexual torture and death and had pornographic images attached.

A university board found Mirisis responsible for the e-mail and suspended him, although no criminal charge was ever filed. Mirisis has denied sending the threat and says he filed an appeal of the university board's finding, but the university did not deal with it after he transferred to North Carolina State. University officials, citing privacy rules, declined to discuss the matter.

...

Mirisis said he did not tell Fletcher or Groves about his academic fraud and suspension because "I had moved on" and had been successfully employed by Frank Luntz, a Washington pollster.

Fletcher hired Mirisis after knowing he had worked for Frank Luntz. That's the real scandal.