DAVID HARSANYI:

Here’s some advice on bribery: If you’re out to corrupt a journalist, bribe one who doesn’t already agree with your position. It’s just sinful to squander tax dollars on paying off a supporter. Good press should be free.

True, Armstrong Williams is hardly a journalist, but rather a commentator with a self-described conservative agenda. He was dropped by his syndicate (as well as The Denver Post) for accepting $240,000 from a public relations firm hired by the Department of Education to promote No Child Left Behind.

Williams was greedy. The Department of Education was flat-out wrong. And the whole affair is tawdry.

Indeed. He has some thoughts on RatherGate and blogs, too.