Drudge is linking to a Tamara Lipper story for Newsweek on changes in the White House speechwriting office. She notes that Bill McGurn will be the new head speechwriter–but keeps calling him a Wall Street Journal editorial writer, which he hasn’t been for a while. She also writes that “Bush’s speeches will . . . be missing Gerson’s religious undertones.” Well, sure. But they’ll have McGurn’s religious undertones instead–just read his recent articles for NRO or First Things or the New York Post and you’ll see that he is not so far off from Gerson’s (or Bush’s) understanding of the proper role of religious language in public life. Lipper also overplays the notion that Bush is breaking up a “trinity” of Gerson, Matt Scully, and John McConnell. McConnell didn’t write speeches for the White House for most of the last term; he spent more of it working for Cheney. Anyway, I’m glad McGurn (formerly NR’s Washington bureau chief, and a friendly acquaintance) got the job.