Inside Politics

Reid’s staffer

An aide to Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat, was arrested on the West Front of the Capitol for disorderly conduct during President Bush‘sinaugural address last week, the Hill newspaper reports.

The aide, Nathan Ackerman, is a TV producer on the Senate Democratic Communications Committee — an organization that was folded into Mr. Reid’s new communications “war room,” reporter Geoff Earle writes.

About 20 minutes into Mr. Bush’s speech, Mr. Ackerman, 36, and another man held up a sheet that said “No War.” According to a Capitol Police report, Mr. Ackerman and another suspect “were blocking the view of the audience, and they were engaged in a verbal dispute with members of the audience.”

The report states that Capitol Police officers told Mr. Ackerman and the other suspect to relinquish the sign or be arrested, but that “neither complied and both were placed under arrest.” The report did not name either suspect, although Mr. Ackerman’s identity was confirmed with the Capitol Police.

Gallagher’s defense

Columnist Maggie Gallagher yesterday defended her decision to accept $21,500 from the Department of Health and Human Services to help it package an administration marriage initiative, but apologized for not disclosing it.

“Is it acceptable for someone who writes a newspaper column to do research and writing for the government?” the columnist wrote.

“Of course, the reason Howard Kurtz of the [Washington] Post is interested is the now-notorious case of conservative columnist Armstrong Williams, who signed a very different sort of government contract: to promote Bush’s No Child Left Behind Act on his television show.

“Armstrong defended himself in two ways, first by saying, ‘I’m a pundit, not a journalist.’ And second by saying that he supported the Bush act anyway, so why shouldn’t he take money?

“It cost him his newspaper column. Very properly, I might add. I have no interest in taking either of these lines of defense. So what’s my answer to Howard?

“My first instinct is to say, no, Howard, I had no special obligation to disclose this information. I’m a marriage expert. I get paid to write, edit, research and educate on marriage. If a scholar or expert gets paid to do some work for the government, should he or she disclose that if he writes a paper, essay or op-ed on the same or similar subject? If this is the ethical standard, it is an entirely new standard.

“I was not paid to promote marriage. I was paid to produce particular research and writing products (articles, brochures, presentations), which I produced. My lifelong experience in marriage research, public education and advocacy is the reason HHS hired me.

“But the real truth is that it never occurred to me. On reflection, I think Howard is right. I should have disclosed a government contract when I later wrote about the Bush marriage initiative. I would have, if I had remembered it. My apologies to my readers.”

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