The Bush Administration has been busted for paying yet another columnist to promote Bush’s unsound policies. That’s three now.

The Propaganda machine is slowly being exposed just like the Wizard of Oz was exposed as the man behind the curtain – only, in this case, the bumbling wizard is our bumbling president.

First we learned that Armstrong Williams was secretly paid to back Bush’s ridiculous, “No Child Left Behind” agenda.

Then we learned that Maggie Gallagher was secretly paid to promote Bush’s gay bashing, which he disguises with the label “healthy marriage.”

Now we learn that syndicated columnist Mike McManus was also secretly paid on behalf of the Bush administration to “promote marriage”.

In light of these exposures (and the countless others waiting to be exposed), President Bush called yesterday for an end to paying commentators to promote his policies.

In the last four years, PR spending had doubled under the Bush Administration.

It’s no small wonder. It’s expensive to sell unsound policy. But our tax dollars should not be used to promote Bush’s political agendas. In the words of Bush himself, “A sound agenda should be able to stand on its own two feet.”

Why, then, is he so scared to let it?

In the meantime, our country faces the largest budget deficit in our history. And Bush managed to accomplish that in only four short years. The rapid rise of public relations costs for Bush’s madness speaks to the priorities of this administration.

The man may have failed at every business he ever had but, frankly, I think Bush would’ve made one hell of a used car salesman. He’s a natural born liar. A real talent.

And to those columnists who take money to sell propaganda, to columnists like Robert Novak who willingly out CIA operatives at the bidding of the White House, I say, “You people are traitors! You are undermining our country, our constitution and our democracy. You deserve jail time or, at the very least, you deserve an ass-kicking.”