Armstrong Williams

Armstrong Williams is a newspaper columnist and TV commentator who writes for beacons of Conservative truthiness like TownHall.com.

Armstrong cleverly cut out the middleman in the early 2000s when he accepted payment from the Bush administration for writing articles that told the truthiness about administration programs. And why not? Only the administration understands what's really important for citizens to know. Why shouldn't a columnist get paid for telling the realiness of administration policies?

Williams was paid by the Department of Education to help African Americans understand the importance the administration's No Child Left Behind or On Rooftops (NCLBOOR) Initiative.

Armstrong Williams is an African-American. For those of us, like Stephen Colbert who can't see color, that doesn't make any difference. That's also true of the administration, of course, which means that they weren't paying Williams only because he was a Republican black writer. Not at all. It's just a coincidence.