At this point, virtually no one is trying to defend the Bush administration’s use of $241,000 — of our money — to pay Armstrong Williams. It’s the first Bush debacle in a long time that Republicans everywhere have been willing to criticize. That is, except for one.
To recap the opposition, Rep. John Boehner, an Ohio Republican who chairs the House Education Committee, joined committee Dems in requesting an inquiry by the Education Department’s inspector general. In the Senate, Sens. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) and Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), who head a Senate panel that oversees federal education spending, also got together to call for a investigation.
Even the president has accepted the reality that these payments were wrong.
“I think there needs to be a clear distinction between journalism and advocacy. And I appreciate the way Armstrong Williams has handled this, because he has made it very clear that he made a mistake. And I think all of us — the Cabinet needs to take a good look and make sure this kind of thing doesn’t happen again.”
So, we’re all in agreement, right? Everyone, that is, except Bush’s Education Secretary, Rod Paige.
Education Secretary Roderick R. Paige yesterday defended payments to a conservative black commentator to promote the No Child Left Behind law as a standard “outreach effort” to minority groups who stand to benefit most from the Bush administration’s showcase education program.
Worst…education secretary…ever.
Indeed, it’s fitting that the last thing Rod Paige will do as the nation’s top education official is mount a defense for giving our money to a right-wing pundit to plug an ineffective and underfunded education policy.
Thankfully, Paige will be on his way back to Texas in a few weeks, but it’s hard to see how his tenure could have much worse.
* Paige called the nation’s largest group of school teachers a “terrorist organization.”
* The record Paige compiled in Texas, which is why he became education secretary in the first place, was exposed as a fraud.
* A St. Louis high school student “stumped” Paige with a question about education budget cuts.
* Paige has condemned public schools for not having the right “values.”
* Paige has never fully grasped what the No Child Left Behind policy actually does.
* And when he’s tried to defend it, no one, even Republican lawmakers, believed him.
With a record like this, I’m surprised Bush isn’t giving Paige a promotion.