Nothing quite like a free lunch.

I tend to have quite a lot of trust in government. Until recently, I would have said that there were very few things that government could not legitimately do. There are plenty of things that might be silly, politically devastating, or harsh to do, but even then, I am more than willing to give government the benefit of the doubt.

Occasionally, though, I find some government actions that strike me as being a little on the shady side. Today, I read a new story about one such action that I found so absurdly shady that I actually burst out laughing in the computer lab at the law school.

A while back (it’s probably been a few years now, I suppose), news agencies broke the story that the Bush Administration had paid journalists, editorial writers, and other media personalities to promote some of the policies of the Bush administration. I’m not a huge fan of having the government manipulate media without being honest and just nationalizing them, so the Bush administration’s act of bribing columnists to write positive reviews of their policies automatically earned my disfavor.

Well, today, it was announced that the Justice Department successfully negotiated a settlement with one of the columnists who had taken the bribe. Without having to admit his own wrongdoing, the columnist can escape litigation for taking the bribe by paying the government $34,000.

Let the delicious absurdity sink in for a moment. Isn’t it beautiful? A government that engages in wrongdoing (and encourages a journalist to engage in wrongdoing through use of a bribe) rectifies the situation after they have gotten the positive story from the journalist by GETTING SOME OF ITS MONEY BACK!

I love it! Ha ha ha ha ha….