Columnist was paid to promote marriage

WASHINGTON – The Department of Health and Human Services acknowledged Thursday that it paid a syndicated columnist at least $4,000 for work on behalf of Bush administration efforts to promote marriage.

The disclosure came a day after President Bush called for an end to paying commentators to promote his policies. Wade Horn, assistant secretary for Children and Families at the department, responded Thursday by issuing new rules banning the practice.

Conservative commentator Armstrong Williams and syndicated columnist Maggie Gallagher both had publicly backed Bush policies while being paid by the government without disclosing it.

On Thursday, a third example surfaced. Mike McManus, who writes a weekly column syndicated in 30 to 40 newspapers, said he was paid about $4,000 to train marriage mentors in 2003 and 2004. McManus was subcontracted by the Lewin Group, which had a contract to support community-based programs “to form and sustain healthy marriages.”

McManus’ nonprofit group, Marriage Savers, also is being paid $49,000 by a group that received a Health and Human Services grant to teach similar principles to unwed couples who are having children.

Since the consulting deals began in January 2003, McManus has touted Bush’s marriage initiative in several of his columns. At least three of them quoted Horn, a former member of the Marriage Savers board of directors. Horn’s office manages the grant and contract under which McManus’ group is paid.

McManus, who has been quoted as a marriage expert in publications that include USA Today, defended his dual role as a journalist and a government consultant. “I don’t see that it’s relevant,” he said. “I was hired because we have an expertise in working with churches.” He said his columns aren’t influenced by the payments, and pointed to one in October in which he chided Bush on an environmental issue.

Even so, Horn issued a directive Thursday banning the use of columnists as outside contractors. “It is important to avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest, and to maintain an arms-length relationship with members of the media,” he wrote.