Representative George Miller, the ranking Democrat on the education
committee, and other House Democrats had already called for an
investigation.
Why should the IG contact me? Williams replied, noting he had been
merely a subcontractor.
Any thorough investigation, I remarked, would include questioning the
subcontractor.
He scratched his head.
"Funny," he said.
"I thought this [contract] was a blessing at the time."
And then Williams violated a PR rule: he got off-point.
"This happens all the time," he told me.
"There are others."
Really? I said.
Other conservative commentators accept money from the Bush
administration?
I asked Williams for names.
"I'm not going to defend myself that way," he said.
The issue right now, he explained, was his own mistake.
Well, I said, what if I call you up in a few weeks, after this blows
over, and then ask you?
No, he said.
Does Williams really know something about other rightwing pundits?
Or was he only trying to minimize his own screw-up with a momentary
embrace of a trumped-up everybody-does-it defense?
I could not tell.
But if the IG at the Department of Education or any other official
questions Williams, I suggest he or she ask what Williams meant by
this comment.
And if Williams is really sorry for this act of "bad judgment" and for
besmirching the profession of rightwing punditry, shouldn't he do what
he can to guarantee that those who watch pundits on the cable news
networks and read political columnists receive conservative views that
are independent and untainted by payoffs from the Bush administration
or other political outfits?
Armstrong, please, help us all protect the independence of the
conservative commentariat.
If you are not alone, tell us who else has yielded to bad judgment.
http://www.thenation.com/capitalgames/index.mhtml?bid=3&pid=2114
By David Corn
Armstrong Williams: I Am Not Alone
01/10/2005
It was a rare moment of talk-show unanimity.
On the set of the Fox News Washington bureau, host Tony Snow, fellow
guest Linda Chavez (a conservative pundit), and I were slamming
Armstrong Williams, a rightwing columnist and talk show host.
USA Today had reported--as you probably know--that Williams had been
paid nearly a quarter of a million dollars by the Bush administration
to promote its No Child Left Behind education bill.
And Williams, who supported the legislation in his column and as a
cable news talking head, had not bothered to inform his audiences or
the folks who book him at CNN, Fox, and MSNBC that he was a shill on
the Bush payroll.
Snow was shaking his head at Williams' indiscretion, and Chavez was
upset and joked that she had received bupkis from the White House.
Prior to going on air, she had complained that ArmstrongGate had
caused some people to assume that she and other conservative
commentators were also riding this gravy train.
Since the story broke on Friday, she said, several people had asked
her how much she had received from the Bush administration.
She was pissed at Williams for conduct that was raising questions
about the whole cadre of rightwing pundits.
During our non-debate on Williams, I noted that it was a waste of
taxpayer money to pay Williams for supporting the Bush administration,
which he seemed quite willing to do for free.
And I wondered aloud how this contract had come to be.
After our segment finished, Chavez and I headed to the green room, and
there he was: Armstrong Williams.
He was waiting to go on air to defend himself.
I've known him a long time; we've often sparred, in friendly fashion,
on these shouting-head shows.
I shook my head and said, "Armstrong, Armstrong, Armstrong...."
He was quick with his main talking point:
"It was bad judgment, Dave. Bad judgment."
His phone rang.
He answered it, said hello, and then told the person on the other end,
"It was bad judgment. You know, just bad judgment."
________________________________________________________
More about Armstrong Williams' "judgement;
From The San Francisco Chronicle, 6/18/98:
Lott Interviewer Faces Sex Harass Suit Ex-employee claims
gay advances
The talk show host who provided a forum for Senate Majority
Leader Trent Lott to condemn homosexuality, and then
strongly endorsed his views, is the target of a sexual
harassment suit -- by a man.
Armstrong Williams, host of a show on the America's Voice
network and a prominent pundit in Washington's conservative
circles, is accused by former employee Stephen Gregory of
more than 50 incidents of sexual harassment.
Gregory alleges in a suit filed a year ago that Williams
repeatedly kissed him on the mouth, grabbed his buttocks and
genitals, and climbed into bed with him on business trips.
After rebuffing Williams, Gregory charges, the talk- show
host retaliated by docking his pay and ultimately firing
him.
Gregory is asking for $200,000 in damages, and now that
Williams has failed in an attempt to have the suit
dismissed, the case is expected to go to a jury trial late
this year.
Williams said through a spokesman that he had no comment on
the case because it is pending in Superior Court in
Washington.
When the case was originally filed, Williams called the
allegations lies, adding that it would be ``stupid'' to
engage in such conduct given his public position.
Gregory's attorney, Mickey Wheatley, a former lawyer with
the Lamda Legal Defense Fund, a gay civil rights group,
called it ``ironic for Trent Lott to be making these
offensive pronouncements when he's sitting across from
somebody who's been accused of the most abusive kind of
conduct of a homosexual nature.''
Wheatley added that Williams ``believes that (homosexuality)
to be a sin, and so he must be in great pain over it, but
he's inflicting pain on others with his pronouncements.
The way he treated my client would be indicative of what
happens when you try to repress something as basic about
yourself as your sexuality.
My advice to him would be to get a boyfriend and leave his
employees alone.''
The controversy emerged Monday, when Lott's comments were
first made public.
In a taped interview for Williams' show, Lott compared
homosexuals to alcoholics, sex addicts and kleptomaniacs.
Williams vigorously defended Lott's statements on several
television programs.
He told CNN's Inside Politics, ``We all have challenges that
we need to wrestle with, that we need to pray about. . . .
Senator Lott also said during the interview that we must
love, embrace, show tolerance.''
On CNN's Talk Back Live yesterday, Williams asserted that 30
percent of the parents of gay children have slept with their
children.
David Smith, spokesman for the Human Rights Campaign, a gay
lobbying group, called the statement ``the most disgusting,
vile, reckless lie I've heard on television in quite some
time."
Williams, raised as a Pentecostal, is believed to be about
40 years old -- his office could not confirm his exact age
-- and is unmarried.
He first gained prominence in 1991as one of Supreme Court
Justice Clarence Thomas' most vocal defenders against
charges raised during Thomas' confirmation hearing that he
had sexually harassed Anita Hill.
Gregory, a former trainer at the local YMCA, charges in his
suit that Williams hired him as his personal trainer in late
1994.
Shortly afterward, Gregory said, Williams engaged
him as a volunteer and then as an employee at his talk show,
and less than a year later promoted him to executive
producer.
Gregory says Williams forced him to ``spend almost all his
waking hours with him,'' driving him to the studio and
accompanying him on business trips.
Gregory charges that Williams would force them to share a room to save
costs, and then attempt to get into bed with him.
The complaint says Williams told Gregory that he loved him,
repeatedly tried to kiss him on the lips, insisted that he
was not homosexual, but ``just needed some `affection'
from Gregory because he wanted to remain celibate with women
until he married.''
Harry
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