We learned earlier this week that the Bush administration is using our money to create fake-news ads (you remember, “I’m Karen Ryan reporting…”) touting its education policy and “ranking” reporters on whether they made Bush look good or not. Yesterday, Senate Dems started fighting back.
Two Democratic senators have asked for an investigation into whether the Education Department spent public money on political propaganda for President Bush.
Sens. Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey and Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts on Thursday asked the Government Accountability Office to review whether the department illegally spent money on a video promoting Bush’s education law — and on news coverage ratings that gave points to stories that made Bush and the Republican Party look good.
One of the senators couldn’t help but notice a certain irony to the administration’s approach.
“President Bush won’t spend the money needed to fund the No Child Left Behind Act, but he seems to have no trouble using $700,000 in taxpayer’s dollars to make sure he and his party won’t be hurt at the ballot box over their education policies,” said Lautenberg. “Instead of using these funds for after school programs or tutoring services, the President used education funds to evaluate his own political prospects.”
This isn’t just another partisan stunt; it’s a real scandal. We already know when the administration did the same thing with its Medicare propaganda — down to using the identical “Karen Ryan” — it was found to be illegal. There’s no difference here. In fact, it’s considerably worse since the administration is a repeat offender of the same abuse of the public trust.