Hmmm.
U.S. News & World Report will start disclosing that columnist Brian Walsh, a former National Republican Senatorial Committee communications director, is still on the NRSC payroll, following an inquiry from POLITICO.
Since April, the NRSC has been giving Walsh $5,000 a month for communications, strategy and consulting, according to FEC filings. Walsh's bio at U.S. News refers to him as "a government relations and public affairs strategist in Washington DC," but does not mention that he is being paid by the Republican party.
It gets better. Walsh has been using his column to foment the simmering civil war in the Republican party.
n recent months, Walsh has used his column to target conservative hard-line groups, including the Senate Conservatives Fund and The Heritage Foundation, which have positioned themselves against establishment Republicans. Walsh is also frequently quoted in the press as a "former NRSC spokesperson" while speaking out against these groups.
And clearly he's not a 'former' anything.
A spokeswoman for USN&WR said she didn't know about Walsh's relationship with the NRSC because he didn't disclose it, and they fully intend to amend his biography to include this bit of info. Yah, disclosure's the problem here. No problem with a conflict of interest or anything.
And here is Walsh's take on the matter:
"As a longtime Republican strategist it's never been a secret that I try to help Republicans win and Democrats lose. So no one has ever questioned my motives but clearly purity for profit groups like the Senate Conservatives Fund are increasingly worried that more and more Republicans are exposing theirs," he said. (POLITICO did not correspond with anyone from the SCF for this report.
Um. What about that $5,000 a month you keep taking from them?