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.<\/p>\n
To recap the opposition, Rep. John Boehner, an Ohio Republican who chairs the House Education Committee, joined committee Dems<\/a> 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<\/a> to call for a investigation.<\/p>\n Even the president has accepted the reality<\/a> that these payments were wrong.<\/p>\n “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.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n So, we’re all in agreement, right? Everyone, that is, except Bush’s Education Secretary, Rod Paige<\/a>.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Worst…education secretary…ever. 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.<\/p>\n * Paige called the nation’s largest group of school teachers a “terrorist organization<\/a>.”<\/p>\n * The record Paige compiled in Texas, which is why he became education secretary in the first place, was exposed as a fraud<\/a>.<\/p>\n * A St. Louis high school student “stumped” Paige<\/a> with a question about education budget cuts.<\/p>\n * Paige has condemned public schools<\/a> for not having the right “values.”<\/p>\n * Paige has never fully grasped what the No Child Left Behind policy actually does<\/a>.<\/p>\n
\n
\nIndeed, 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.<\/p>\n