Education Secretary Margaret Spellings for the first time acknowledged "errors of judgment" by the Bush administration in paying a prominent black pundit to promote its education policies, saying she has halted work on the contract.
The admission, in a letter to lawmakers, came as Congress' investigative arm on Friday opened a probe into the $240,000 contract with commentator Armstrong Williams, who has admitted that the deal was a mistake.
The USA TODAY first reported on Jan. 7 that the Education Department last year paid Williams, former protege of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas,to advocate for its No Child Left Behind law and urge other black journalists to do the same.
Sen. Edward Kennedy , D-Mass., on Friday said, "The president said that his Cabinet agencies made a mistake when they paid commentators to promote his agenda. It's more than just a mistake, it is an abuse of taxpayer funds and and someone should be held accountable." Kennedy added, "If your gonna spend the taxpayer's money and have some black guy pimp for you, your not gonna go out and pick some uncle tom who looks like a cross between Steve Eurkel and Orville Redenbacher". Kennedy went on to say "And make no mistake, if it there were a Democrat in the White House, you would have at least seen us go and get P.Diddy, if not Oprah".
0 comments:
Post a Comment