My last post was on the old question, Is ghostwriting ethical?

I decided it is, at least most of the time.

People today take the existence of speechwriters for granted. Furthermore, speechwriting is usually a collaborative effort between the speechwriter and the speaker -- to say nothing of lawyers, PR operatives, policy experts and all the other cooks who end up adding their own secret ingredients to the soup.

It is a rare occasion when a speaker simply reads a speech that has been prepared for him. And, when it happens, people can usually sense it.

There's a story about a member of the House of Commons -- where debate is a blood sport -- who once surprised the whole chamber by delivering an uncommonly good speech.

His colleagues cheered him to the echo while, from the benches of the opposition, came derisive cries of "Author, author!"

There really is an ethics committee that sits in judgement on speakers and speechwriters. It's called the Audience.