My afternoon with Armstrong Williams
Williams is in a lot of trouble for taking $240,000 in taxpayer money to promote the No Child Left Behind Act. Friday's USA Today article that exposed the unethical and possibly illegal deal prompted Tribune to sever its contract with Williams, who writes a column for their syndicate. Practically all afternoon, Williams was on TV arguing his side of the story -- that it wasn't unethical because he's a pundit, not a journalist, and besides, he was for NCLF anyway. Of course, that's all baloney. If he was for NCLB why did he take the money?
The whole incident reminded me of this bizarre job interview I had with Williams. While visiting DC last summer with a friend, I stumbled onto the interview. Stumble is the perfect word for this, as the interview proved the most awkward 50 minutes of my life. It happened on a lark. It was a sweltering June day during the week Ronald Reagan died -- so my friend and I were dressed in shorts and t-shirts, like tourists, not folks out for a job. After lunch we dropped by AIPAC's headquarters, so that my friend could visit old pals of his from his internship there the previous summer. While chatting it up, one of the AIPAC staffers told me that he knew a guy in town who was looking for a writer -- a conservative columnist looking for a ghost writer, specifically a young Democrat who would challenge him intellectually. The columnist was Williams, and after a quick phone call, the staffer arranged for me to interview with Williams the following hour.
Iit took an hour to find the place -- an hour spent wandering in 90 degree heat. By the time we found the place, we were late but Williams led us into his office. It overlooks Massachusetts Avenue near Union Station and features a desk topped with figurines in the shape of elephants (he's a Republican, remember) and lots of samurai swords (I have no idea... he's into swords, I guess). Williams shushed me repeatedly as he tried to read my resume and I kept nervously interrupting his concentration to highlight my background.
"I was editor of the student paper at Emory and I..."
"Let me read, young man," he cut me off, sternly.
He looked at some of my clips, sighing after looking at an emotional essay I'd written about my late father. Then he turned to me and started asking those hard-hitting questions about the types of things you expect an employer to ask his prospective employee: you guessed it, gay marriage.
"So, do you believe in gay marriage," he asked.
"Uh, yeah, I'm for it, I suppose," I said.
"Well, what if I told you 70 percent of gay couples molest their children?"
"Um... then they should probably be prosecuted."
"Well, do you believe in bestiality?"
At this point, I admit my memory of the interview is a little hazy. It went on, back and forth, for about 50 minutes, and there was an odd focus on gay marriage. Williams, echoed every other religious conservative, insisting that gay marriage was anathema to the institution of marriage, the foundation of civilization.
Of course, I ended up not taking the job. Williams offered me a trial as his ghost writer, but the interview was startlingly weird and I figured there were other opportunities out there to write.
The whole incident reminded me of this bizarre job interview I had with Williams. While visiting DC last summer with a friend, I stumbled onto the interview. Stumble is the perfect word for this, as the interview proved the most awkward 50 minutes of my life. It happened on a lark. It was a sweltering June day during the week Ronald Reagan died -- so my friend and I were dressed in shorts and t-shirts, like tourists, not folks out for a job. After lunch we dropped by AIPAC's headquarters, so that my friend could visit old pals of his from his internship there the previous summer. While chatting it up, one of the AIPAC staffers told me that he knew a guy in town who was looking for a writer -- a conservative columnist looking for a ghost writer, specifically a young Democrat who would challenge him intellectually. The columnist was Williams, and after a quick phone call, the staffer arranged for me to interview with Williams the following hour.
Iit took an hour to find the place -- an hour spent wandering in 90 degree heat. By the time we found the place, we were late but Williams led us into his office. It overlooks Massachusetts Avenue near Union Station and features a desk topped with figurines in the shape of elephants (he's a Republican, remember) and lots of samurai swords (I have no idea... he's into swords, I guess). Williams shushed me repeatedly as he tried to read my resume and I kept nervously interrupting his concentration to highlight my background.
"I was editor of the student paper at Emory and I..."
"Let me read, young man," he cut me off, sternly.
He looked at some of my clips, sighing after looking at an emotional essay I'd written about my late father. Then he turned to me and started asking those hard-hitting questions about the types of things you expect an employer to ask his prospective employee: you guessed it, gay marriage.
"So, do you believe in gay marriage," he asked.
"Uh, yeah, I'm for it, I suppose," I said.
"Well, what if I told you 70 percent of gay couples molest their children?"
"Um... then they should probably be prosecuted."
"Well, do you believe in bestiality?"
At this point, I admit my memory of the interview is a little hazy. It went on, back and forth, for about 50 minutes, and there was an odd focus on gay marriage. Williams, echoed every other religious conservative, insisting that gay marriage was anathema to the institution of marriage, the foundation of civilization.
Of course, I ended up not taking the job. Williams offered me a trial as his ghost writer, but the interview was startlingly weird and I figured there were other opportunities out there to write.
posted by Andrew at 10:01 PM
2 Comments:
How WEIRD! I can only imagine the amount of self-loathing and fear it takes to make one become a 'black Republican' anyway....especially one paid by the administration under the table to propagandize for their divisive incompetent policies!!
This guy sure is a sad piece of work.
It's the same type of self-loathing that gay Republicans somehow live with. By the way, I think Williams is both -- black & gay. And Republican.
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