Most policy issues are genuinely tough. But just occasionally, something comes along that is as straightforward as it looks. Is it a good idea for a government to look as if it is paying bribes to journalists? Or for a government to put out fake news reports? No and no. And George Bush, at least, gets it. "I expect my cabinet secretaries to make sure that practice doesn't go forward," he says. "There needs to be a nice, independent relationship between the White House and the press." Yet the past month has brought a slew of stories of government departments stomping all over that bright line. The most recent is the case of Michael McManus, a syndicated columnist. He got $10,000 from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for helping train marriage counsellors. Before that it was Maggie Gallagher, another syndicated columnist: $21,500 from HHS for helping draft brochures promoting marriage. Before that came the biggest pay-off so far: $241,000 from the Department of Education to a talk-show host called Armstrong Williams to help promote Mr Bush's No Child Left Behind Act.
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