Not unethical, but not smart

last updated 8 January 2015

Washington, D.C.

An internal investigation has concluded that the Education Department did nothing unethical but did use “poor judgment,” when it hired commentator Armstrong Williams to promote President Bush’s education policy. Williams insisted he had always supported Bush’s “No Child Left Behind” law, but he didn’t mention it once until he started getting paid. Then he praised it in five columns over five months. President Bush said in January that the White House knew nothing about the Williams contract, but the report revealed that one Bush aide discussed the arrangement four times with education officials last summer, when the contract was renewed.