Saturday, December 6, 2008

The August 2007 Armstrong Williams Interview with Sarah Palin

I caught a reference to an August 2007 interview of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, by conservative commentator Armstrong Williams, back in September of this year. Mother Jones referenced the interview in a MoJo blog entry by Jonathan Stein. At the time, his YouTube link didn't work, so I forgot about it.

But the YouTubes of the interview have been re-posted, and I've decided to post them here. Williams may be one of the conservatives who recommended her to people in the McCain camp, when they were weighing the possibility of Palin as a VP candidate.

Armstrong Williams, long a second string conservative commentator, became famous when it came out in January 2005, as the result of a Freedom of Information Act request by USA Today, that Williams had been paid $240,000 by the U.S. Department of Education to promote No Child Left Behind in the media. Part of the deal between Williams and the DOE, was that nobody know he was being paid for his efforts, so that it would appear to the public that he was writing out of commitment to an idea, rather than fulfilling a contractual obligation in return for the money.

After the secret pay-off to Williams became public, the Government Accountability Office and U.S. Department of Justice had to decide how to handle what was increasingly obvious to the public to be an illegal deal. Williams denied he did anything illegal, but had to reimburse the government $34,000 for work he had billed them for but hadn't done.

The August 2007 interview was carried on Williams' television program, The Right Side.

Part One:


Part Two:


Part Three:


Part Four:

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Williams was back on the air recently, as a guest political prognosticator on Comcast's CN8 channel.

He made negative predictions about the economy and Obama's favorability ratings in 18 months. It's one thing to offer insight on politics of issue that have occured or are current. It's another with predict someone's downfall.

EVERY interview should start with a brief acknowledgment of who is paying the guest.

What does it take to get rid of people like Williams and Kristol as honored guests by the political entertainment industry?

Anonymous said...

Three minutes and 45 seconds into the first one -- I can't take it anymore. I'm going to have to do this in stages.

Anonymous said...

There's the "energy expert" saying that Alaska supplies 20% of the country's energy! Ugh...

Is it asking too much for her to know the correct amount? I don't think it is.

Anonymous said...

"After the secret pay-off to Williams became public, the Government Accountability Office and U.S. Department of Justice had to decide how to handle what was increasingly obvious to the public to be an illegal deal. Williams denied he did anything illegal..."

So THAT'S where Palin got the idea that if she denies she had anything to do with the RNC clothing/hair/makeup budget spent on her, denies wrongdoing in Troopergate, denies being responsible for a 2 year delay in reporting gifts and freebies, she gets to pass GO and collect $200...

See, she didn't read the part about "...but had to reimburse the government $34,000 for work he had billed them for but hadn't done."

KaJo

KaJo said...

Someone should remind Palin of her remarks about how independent she wants Alaska to be from the federal government -- "quit relying on the federal government so much" in her own words -- when she tries to live within the means of her 2009 budget. Too, also.

Although that's probably not what most Alaskans would want, because SHE'S not the one who'd suffer directly from her conservatism, THEY would. Also.