Bush payola scandal deepens as third columnist admits being paid

[emad]

Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington
Saturday January 29, 2005
The Guardian

The Bush administration was confronted with fresh evidence of a far-reaching clandestine campaign to influence public opinion yesterday after a third conservative commentator admitted receiving payments for championing its policies.

Michael McManus, a newspaper columnist, was paid up to $10,000 (£5,300) to praise the administration's marriage initiative, which diverts funds from welfare to marital counselling, the Los Angeles Times reported.

His fees were approved by a branch of the department of health and human services, and were funnelled through the Lewin Group, a consultancy firm. The commentator's rightwing Marriage Savers Foundation received an additional $49,000 in government grants. Mr McManus did not disclose the payments in his columns.

Neither did Maggie Gallagher, another conservative columnist and even a more prominent supporter of the marriage plan.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1401211,00.html

[SmokingJacket]

1. Drip.... drip... when's the dam gonna break? nt

[Jackpine Radical]

2. What dam? These are Republicans.

They live in a moral cypress swamp. No dams. Just creepy, slithery reptilian things, and the eternal drip-drip from the exudations of the wet slime things that grow in the decaying trees.