It turns out that Armstrong Williams wasn’t the only pundit on the Bush administration payroll. Maggie Gallagher got $21,500 from HHS to flack Bush administration marriage and family policy. That’s the story Howie Kurtz lands in tomorrow’s Post.
On top of that, says Kurtz: “Gallagher received an additional $20,000 from the Bush administration in 2002 and 2003 for writing a report, titled ‘Can Government Strengthen Marriage?’, for a private organization called the National Fatherhood Initiative.”
When you read a bit further down into the piece you find this fact: The fellow who hired Gallagher at HHS is Wade Horn, HHS assistant secretary for children and families. And what’d he do before he started work for the Bush administration? Right, he founded the National Fatherhood Iniative.
It seems fair to say that the Gallagher arrangement wasn’t as egregious as the Williams one. It’s not clear — at least from Kurtz’s piece — that she was paid to flack the policy, but rather to ghostwrite a few marriage policy articles, write a few brochures and do … well, it’s actually not totally clear what she was paid to do.
Which suggests a point. Were they really worried that Gallagher would come out for free love without the cash incentive? Neither she nor Williams is really known for their independent streak. In Gallagher’s case — and to some degree in Williams’ too — this seems less like a matter of payola than a Bush administration make-work program for third-tier GOP pundits.
