Return of the Payola Pundit

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Armstrong Williams, the conservative black pundit who entered into a $240,000 contract with the Bush administration to promote the No Child Left Behind Act, says he has (1) recognized the errors of his ways, and (2) resents the way he was criticized. He's managed to resurrect his career, hosting a radio show in New York and writing a new book to come out this fall, titled The New Racists: How Liberal Democrats Have Betrayed Minority Americans. He also says he's bitter about how he was was treated by fellow conservatives during his payola-pundit scandal. "I had put everything on the line, defending the right, supporting the right. … None of the conservative [groups] came to my rescue. I was alone." Ironically, he notes that he received his most sympathetic treatment from the New York Times, a newspaper reviled by the conservative movement for its alleged liberal bias. "If it weren’t for The New York Times," Williams said, "it probably would have been over for me."