http://apnews.myway.com/article/20050126/D87S2IIO0.html
It turns out that after the revelation of Armstrong Williams and Maggie Gallagher, two columnists, were paid by the Bush administration to shill for their policies, Bush is now asking his cabinet agencies to NOT hire members of the press. That is, not to break the law. It’s illegal to use government money to pay for propaganda within the United States.
It’ll be interesting to see how many more columnists are revealed to have government contracts.
Also, if this is illegal and it’s Bush’s cabinet level secretaries who are responsible, what, if any, grounds are there for a Special Prosecutor to be appointed? (Remember, by the way, that the Special Prosecutor Act is another post-Nixon move by the legislature to limit the powers of the executive.)
–Philo
Also, Maureen Dowd’s column on the subject:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/27/opinion/27dowd.html?oref=login
UPDATE:
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/01/27/mcmanus/
A third Conservative columnist has been revealed to be shilling for Bush.
January 28th, 2005 at 7:10 pm
Hannity had Armstrong Williams on his radio show yesterday and completely forgave him for his transgressions. Why was he willing to do it? Because Williams said he was sorry. To his credit, Williams sounded sincere in his apology on the air yesterday and has handled this problem very honorably. But come on, how would Hannity have reacted if this happened under a liberal president? Why aren’t the House and Senate Democrats raising hell about this? Why are they pulling their punches?
~The Stuffed Tiger