US: There's a saying about not being able to "bribe" or "twist" a certain kind of journalist, as "seeing what unbribed they'll do, there never is occasion to". President Bush may want to put this under the glass top of his desk. He had to make a rare admission of error this week, when asked about the Department of Education's payment of $240,000 to conservative columnist Armstrong Williams to plug its policies, which Williams did without mentioning the contract. It was a mistake by Williams - and the department, he said.
Now it has emerged that syndicated columnist Maggie Gallagher, a prominent advocate of a gay marriage ban, had a $21,500 deal with the Health and Human Services Department to help promote the agency's pro-marriage initiative. She apologised to readers this week for not disclosing the contract when she wrote in praise of the administration's policy, though she said she was paid only to compose a brochure and give briefings to officials.
Tony Blankley, an editor with the right-wing Washington Times, said: "There's a cloud over conservatives and all commentators and pundits", and hoped he was not being naïve in suspecting it involved very few people.
Columnist Maureen Dowd in the New York Times couldn't resist writing that she was herewith resigning as a member of the liberal media elite and joining up with the conservative media elite as "they get paid better".
Mr Bush told reporters at his press conference on Wednesday that there "needs to be a nice independent relationship between the White House and the press", and said he had ordered his Cabinet secretaries not to hire journalists to promote administration policies. Some of the questions underscored that "there never is occasion to". A reporter for Talon News, noting that Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid had warned about "soup lines" if the economy got worse, asked the President, "How are you going to work with people who seem to have divorced themselves from reality?" After this "softball" a gleeful Rush Limbaugh pointed out that the reporter must have been listening to his conservative radio talk show: Reid had never mentioned soup lines but Limbaugh had used the phrase to characterise the senator's portrayal of America.
The "nice independent relationship" between the White House and the media only goes so far. At his White House press conference Mr Bush called every reporter in the reserved front rows - except for veteran Helen Thomas. But then the sharp-tongued Hearst columnist might have asked Mr Bush awkward questions, like what he thought of the Human Rights Watch report that torture was now being used again by Iraqi security forces, less than two years since Saddam Hussein was toppled.
Another bit of White House news manipulation was reported by Michael Phillips of the Wall Street Journal. It concerned the website of the Millennium Challenge Account, created by Mr Bush in 2002 to give more money to developing countries. At the weekend the Millennium Challenge agency altered the site to change a reference to the President's initial funding promise of nearly three years ago. Before the alteration it stated that Mr Bush had pledged to double the funding "to $5 billion a year starting in FY (financial year) '06". But the White House decided last week to include only $3 billion funding in the 2006 budget. After the weekend the site read: "The President has pledged to increase funding for the MCA to $5 billion in the future."
This is the third year Mr Bush has committed a lot less than he promised to combat poverty, the New York Times said. In 2004 Mr Bush said he would ask Congress for $1.7 billion in 2004 but asked for $1.3 billion and got $1 billion. He said he would ask for $3.3 billion in 2005 but asked for $2.5 billion and got $1.5 billion.
"It can be assumed that Congress will cut the diluted 2006 pledge even further," the Times concluded. It also noted that no country has yet received a dime from the Millennium Challenge Account, though several have qualified. "President Bush is falling further and further behind on promises to boost funding to combat poverty in the developing world," reported the Wall Street Journal. Yesterday Mr Bush repeated at the swearing-in of Condoleezza Rice as Secretary of State, "We must fight HIV AIDS and reduce poverty."
However, the budget just drafted by the White House also scales back payments of the $10 billion extra Mr Bush promised two years ago for increased AIDs funding under pressure from figures such as Bono and then treasury secretary Paul O'Neill. Meanwhile the White House is asking for $80 billion more for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Who could have made the following rude remarks about Mr Bush and his top aides? The President likes to give people nicknames but Dick Cheney has given him one - "the Apprentice". Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is tough - "think Martha Stewart with access to nuclear codes". Outgoing Attorney General John Ashcroft is going home to Missouri "where he intends to cover up naked statues in the private sector". The Bushes, George Herbert Walker Bush, George W. Bush, Barbara Bush, Jev Bush, George Prescott Bush, Marvin P. Bush, Laura Bush, William H.T. Bush, Doro Bush Koch and John Ellis Bush jnr, are known within the family as "41, 43, 44, 45, 47, 49, 50, 51, 52 and Marvin". Why none other than the President himself, speaking at the annual Alfalfa black-tie dinner for the inside crowd in Washington, as reported by the Washington Post.
The prospect of a Kennedy-Cuomo political war receded this week when JFK's nephew Robert Kennedy finally said he would not challenge brother-in-law Andrew Cuomo for NY attorney general. However, an equally intriguing clash looms. New York lawyer Edward Cox, son-in-law of Richard Nixon, is reportedly planning to challenge Hillary Clinton for her Senate seat in 2006. Giving an edge to such a match-up: Hillary Clinton started her career working for Nixon's impeachment.