An investigation by Education Department's inspector general has castigated the department for hiring conservative commentator Armstrong Williams to promote No Child Left Behind.
The inspector general said Senior Bush administration officials showed poor judgment and wasted money in hiring Williams and noted that two Education Department officials had warned the White House last summer over concerns about the Williams contract.
Williams was paid nearly a quarter million dollars by the White House to promote the President's agenda in his columns and nationally syndicated talk show. (story)
Williams is a former aide to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, and has a long history of using his columns to attack gays.
In a column following the November 2 election Williams linked gay rights advocates with organized crime.
"Despite the rhetoric that you hear from the homosexual Cosa Nostra, the lack of support for the gay marriage amendment has nothing to do with prejudice," he wrote."It's not about trying to dictate to adults what they should do in the privacy of their own homes. Let's be clear about that. Opposition to the gay marriage amendment isn't about disallowing homosexuals the same basic rights we extend to everyone else. It is about recognizing that marriage between man and woman is the bedrock of our society. It is about the citizens of this country saying, en masse, that they are unwilling to deconstruct certain basic and essential norms in our culture and society."
And By The Way . . . The Peach
If you want to get a better sense of who Tom DeLay is strumming up support from, one only need look at who spoke at the annual NRA convention before DeLay took the stage. Yes, it was none other than that has-been, 'can't even sell out a concert in my home state of Michigan' rock dinosaur Ted Nugent. Ted has become such a minor blip on the celebrity screen that he now desperately seeks attention from an audience that prepares themselves daily for the feared invasion by Canada and Mexico (they're organizing I tell ya).
"Despite the rhetoric that you hear from the homosexual Cosa Nostra, the lack of support for the gay marriage amendment has nothing to do with prejudice," he wrote.
"It's not about trying to dictate to adults what they should do in the privacy of their own homes. Let's be clear about that. Opposition to the gay marriage amendment isn't about disallowing homosexuals the same basic rights we extend to everyone else. It is about recognizing that marriage between man and woman is the bedrock of our society. It is about the citizens of this country saying, en masse, that they are unwilling to deconstruct certain basic and essential norms in our culture and society."