The current issue of Speechwriter's Newsletter asks the old question, Is ghostwriting ethical?

I haven't seen the reposnses yet, but I'm betting that the consensus is the same old answer: It depends.

I've been a speechwriter for over twenty years, and I don't think I have ever written a speech for anyone that wasn't a collaborative effort. By that, I mean that the speechwriter does the grunt work and the speaker adapts the draft to suit his personal style. Very often, other people -- lawyers, policy experts, PR/political operatives, etc. -- get involved in the process as well.

I remember one night during the Reagan Administration, I was watching President Reagan deliver the State of the Union address, in the company of the whole White House domestic policy staff. We were gathered around a TV set in the West Wing. As the President ticked off his priorities, their heads began to nod one by one like a row of spring-necked figurines: "That's my sentence ... that's my sentence ... that's my -- wait! He ad-libbed that one!"

I don't think there's anything unethical about that kind of speechwriting process. I certainly don't feel dirty every time I write a speech.

People these days take speechwriters for granted. But they don't really believe that speechwriters rule the world.

I mean, could you imagine Mike Gerson handing a speech draft to President Bush and saying, "Here are your lines, George -- don't muff them"?

Hmmmm. Maybe some people could. If it ever happened that way, I suppose it would be unethical, but then it almost never does.

That's why, even though he had substantial help from Alexander Hamilton, we still call it, "Washington's Farewell Address." And so it has been with every President since.

And so it should be.