Arm Strong, Ethics Weak

First off, a kind-of kudos to Armstrong Williams. I read your apology column and I compliment you for admitting your error. If you had said "I did not have fiscal relations...with that administration...the Bush adminstration..." then I would think far less of you.

But you came clean and admitted what you did and apologized for it. And you deserve some measure of credit for that. But one thing you said hung me the hell up. You said that you had excercised "bad judgment."

No, you didn't. You exercised your right to manipulate your position and your relations with the Bush administration to make yourself nearly a quarter million dollars. There's a big difference there.

Bad judgment is this wonderful little PR-spin catchall that's become the politically correct way of NOT saying you did it for the money. Or you did it for the sex. Or whatever you might have done it for.

It's the mature and innocuous way of saying you operated in a VERY sleazy way. It just kinda smells less than saying you were on the take. And when you write columns like this criticizing teachers for sleaziness when it's you that's actually on the take...I don't know. That kinda bugs me.

Was there a written contract? Did you have to espouse the beauty of No Child Left Behind on X number of national TV news programs? What exactly was the arrangement? Actually, I don't need to know that to determine that you didn't use the so-called "bad judgment." You judged the fabulous benefits of a quarter million dollar windfall VS. the possibility that someone in the press would find out and make it known to the rest of the world.

One does NOT go into a $240,000 arrangement with the federal government without thinking of all the angles. The ups and the down sides. You thought of them. You ruminated long and hard. And you thought "I believe in No Child...why not?" And you became a shameless huckster for cash, not telling TV viewers and radio listeners that you were being a paid spokesman. You'd have done it without pay, but there it was.

There was no bad judgment. There was a gamble. And you lost. Sorry Mr. Armstrong but you DID have fiscal relations with that administration...the Bush administration.