John Boyle | The Citizen-Times

Sometimes, a single letter of the alphabet can make a big difference — and maybe even bring your ethics into questions.

Such is the case with U.S. Rep. Mark Meadows, R-Transylvania, who either earned an A.A. from the University of South Florida in Tampa or a B.A., depending on your time-traveling habits and which websites you visit.

For the record, Meadows earned an A.A., or associate in arts, not a B.A., or bachelor of arts. The A.A. is a two-year degree, the B.A. a four-year degree.

The discrepancy surfaced in December when President Donald Trump briefly considered Meadows as chief of staff. The job ultimately went to Mick Mulvaney, director of the Office of Management and Budget.

The Tampa Bay Times filed an excellent story Dec. 18 on the degree discrepancies. The newspaper noted that not only was the B.A. claim changed on Meadows Wikipedia page, but...

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"Meadows' official biography maintained by the Office of the Historian of the U.S. House of Representatives also claimed the candidate earned a 'B.A.,' or Bachelor of Arts, from the Tampa university. Those biographies, researched by Office of Historian staff, are vetted by the members' Congressional offices."

Wikipedia pages obviously are not locked down, and in Meadows case the changes came from "a registered user acting under the name of 'Chuck-sum.'"

Seriously, who would ever trust someone who goes by Chuck-sum?

But the Office of the Historian is locked down, and they say the information comes from the politicians' offices.

At best, it seems curious that the degree misrepresentation occurred in so many places, including various media reports, and that it went uncorrected.

The Tampa article noted that papers large and small, including the Macon News here in the mountains, reported that Meadows had a "business management degree" from USF, although no such two-year degree exists there.

"A Wall Street Journal candidate bio from 2012 said Meadows 'received a bachelor's degree in business management from the University of South Florida,'" The Tampa Bay Times reported.

To be fair, "None of these stories directly quote Meadows claiming such a degree from USF," the newspaper reported. "It also does not appear that Meadows has ever professed a four-year degree from USF on his Congressional website, according to a review of archived web pages."

Still, one has to wonder how these outlets got the information that Meadows has a four-year degree.

Having worked in newspapers for decades, I can tell you candidates or their staffers nearly always provide such information. It's up to the news outlet to vet it.

Meadows office has largely kept mum on the discrepancies, with his spokesman, Ben Williamson telling the Tampa newspaper, "We wouldn't comment for any piece."

I reached out to Williamson as well, requesting an interview or comment from Meadows. I also got a fairly terse response.

"Thanks for the offer, but we won’t be doing interviews on any column or story for this," he said. "Any discrepancies did not come from our congressional office. Rep. Meadows has an associate’s degree and he has not claimed otherwise.”

The Citizen Times has caught some grief for taking so long to report on this, and I understand the frustration.

"Have we reached such a cynical time that this is not a newsworthy story?" Jay Bissett asked me recently via phone.

Bissett, who splits his time between Asheville and Gastonia, is a registered Democrat and did some door to door work for the Obama campaign. So yes, he's partisan.

But he also has a point.

"I think it speaks to his integrity and his opinion on the importance of education," Bissett said of the degree issues.

I suspect plenty of folks on the left side of the aisle feel the same way Bissett does — and that those on the right really don't care.

Meadows, who was born in Verdun, France and grew up in Florida, then moved to North Carolina, where he ran a successful restaurant and then built a successful real estate business. He clearly has some business acumen, regardless of the letters behind his name, and he's also become a powerful member of Congress, heading the far-right Freedom Caucus.

Whether Meadows was fluffing his academic credentials to impress Trump or someone else, I doubt we'll ever know for sure. We probably won't know for sure that it was Meadows himself ordering this, although as head of his office, I've got to think he should have or did know about it — and he should have put a clearly stated end to it.

As I often do, I sought out Western Carolina University political science professor Chris Cooper to get his take on this and what it all means. Ultimately, it will likely end up more in the "tempest in a teapot" category, especially since Meadows did not get the chief of staff job, Cooper says.

"I find it hard to believe Meadows knew about this and had the intent to deceive," Cooper said. "Candidates' bios get written by campaign professionals, so I don’t find it hard to imagine that someone along the line changed it from 'attended the University of South Florida' to 'graduated from the University of South Florida,' or something along those lines."

In a nutshell, the risk of getting caught is too great to make up for the reward, which in this case Meadows' supporters really wouldn't care about. "Very little payoff and a high chance you get caught," as Cooper said.

"In Western North Carolina, the fact that he lived in Florida, that is probably a bigger problem for him than the fact that he never graduated from (a four-year) college," Cooper said with a laugh.

I noted that Meadows also got dinged last year by the House Ethics Committee, which formally sanctioned him for failing to act quickly enough after learning his then-chief of staff was sexually harassing female employees. So his ethics have come in to question before.

But unless Meadows runs for higher office or is in the running for another high-profile position with Trump, I suspect this education kerfuffle will remain just that — a story that has little real consequence. He represents much of the mountains, and thanks to gerrymandering, he's in one of the more solidly conservative districts in the state.

Also, let's be honest: We've come to accept that our politicians are not exactly shining stars of honesty in America.

I think Cooper hit the nail on the head.

"I think this is going to be a footnote in the story of Mark Meadows at most," Cooper he said.