Secretary of Education under investigation for Chicago corruption

Yesterday it surfaced that Secretary of Education Arne Duncan was under investigation for his days at the Chicago Public Schools. Duncan had maintained a list of well-connected Chicagoans who would get their children bumped to the front of the line to get into elite schools. The selection process was supposed to be based on merit, not social status.

Now Duncan may find himself in some serious hot water.

U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan has been interviewed by the Chicago Public Schools' inspector general as part of an investigation into how kids won admission to the city's most competitive public high schools while Duncan ran the system here, the Chicago Sun-Times learned Tuesday.

Duncan's name surfaced about 10 times on a 2008 log, now in possession of federal investigators, that contained the names of elected officials and others who interceded on behalf of students trying to win admission to the system's elite schools, sources told the Sun-Times.

Mayor Daley insisted Tuesday that there was nothing wrong with Duncan's office maintaining such a log because "no favoritism" resulted from it.

Daley's defense doesn't pass the laugh test. The names on the list were socialites who knew Duncan well. And even if they weren't, it's impossible to argue that bumping someone to the front based on anything other than school performance isn't favoritism. If there was genuinely nothing wrong with what Duncan did, he wouldn't have kept the list under lock and key, as he did. If Duncan received anything in return for his special list (and it's hard to imagine he didn't), then he could be headed to prison for illegal lobbying. As Chicago Tribune columnist John Kass wrote about the incident, "And once again, the bright road that is the Chicago Way is paved with shiny bricks for all to see."

At this point, Daley may just be defending himself. The Chicago mayor was on the list, as was former White House Social Secretary Desiree Rogers, and Attorney General Lisa Madigan, close ally of Obama and Rahm. Obama transplanted the well-connected circle of Chicagoans who benefited from Duncan's malfeasance into the White House. If the inspector general wants to really get to the bottom of this scandal, he's going to have to look through the highest levels of government.

The base corruption of Obama's Education Secretary

Breaking news out of Chicago this morning that should lead to the resignation of Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, at the very least.

While many Chicago parents took formal routes to land their children in the best schools, the well-connected also sought help through a shadowy appeals system created in recent years under former schools chief Arne Duncan.

Whispers have long swirled that some children get spots in the city's premier schools based on whom their parents know. But a list maintained over several years in Duncan's office and obtained by the Tribune lends further evidence to those charges. Duncan is now secretary of education under President Barack Obama.

The log is a compilation of politicians and influential business people who interceded on behalf of children during Duncan's tenure. It includes 25 aldermen, Mayor Richard Daley's office, House Speaker Michael Madigan, his daughter Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, former White House social secretary Desiree Rogers and former U.S. Sen. Carol Moseley Braun.

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The list was maintained by a top Duncan aide, David Pickens, currently chief of staff to the president of the Chicago Board of Education. Pickens said he created the log at Duncan's behest to track the flood of calls pouring into district offices from parents, politicians and business leaders trying to navigate the system's mysterious and maligned application process.

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The initials "AD" are listed 10 times as the sole person requesting help for a student, and as a co-requester about 40 times. Pickens said "AD" stood for Arne Duncan, though Duncan's involvement is unclear. Duncan's mother appears as a sponsor, as does "KD," whom Pickens identified as Karen Duncan, Arne's wife.

While Duncan was abusing his power to get his well-connected friends' children into good schools, other children were growing up educationally-stunted. Chicago's public schools are the second-worst in the nation. Many have criticized Obama in the past for rewarding failure by promoting Duncan to education secretary. Now we know he was also rewarding blatant corruption.

It's highly unlikely Obama himself didn't know about Duncan's list. Desiree Rogers, the White House's own former social secretary and close friend of the First Lady's, received preferential treatment. So did Lisa Madigan, a friend of Obama's and Rahm's who the White House favored to take over the president's former Senate seat. If there is a legitimate investigation into this (and in Chicago that's a huge "if"), it could find guilt at our highest levels of government.

White House officials facing prison time over Sestak bribe?

Last week, Pennsylvania Democrat Joe Sestak claimed that the White House had offered him a top position in the government if he would drop out of his Senate race. Sestak is locked in a brutal primary against White House ally Arlen Specter, who Obama coaxed over from the Republican Party. Now two members of Congress have expressed concern that the White House may have committed a crime.

[Senator Arlen] Specter said [on MSNBC], “There is a specific federal statute, which makes it a bribe to make an offer for a public office. When I was district attorney, if somebody came and told me that, I would say, well, name names. Name dates. Name places. That’s a very serious charge. It’s a big black smear without specification. I’m telling you there is a federal crime, punishable by jail. Anybody who wants to say that ought to back it up.

Congressman Sestak has gotten a lot of political mileage out of that. It’s really an attack on the administration.”

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Meanwhile, Rep. [Darrell] Issa wrote a letter on Wednesday to White House Counsel Robert Bauer citing U.S. Code 18, Sections 211, 595, and 600 regarding the bribery of a public official. Section 595 says someone who “uses his official authority for the purpose of interfering with, or affecting, the nomination or the election of any candidate for the office of President, Vice President, Presidential elector, Member of the Senate, Member of the House of Representatives, Delegate of the District of Columbia or Resident Commissioner, shall be fined under the title or imprisoned not more than one year, or both.”

Whoever made this bribe, likely someone high up in the administration, could go to prison for a year if convicted. The guilty party was likely one of the president's political advisors. Patrick Gaspard seems too clever and elusive to stick his neck out like this. Rahm Emanuel is the main suspect, but Valerie Jarrett and David Plouffe are also possibilities. It's also improbable that the briber was acting without the express permission of Obama, although the president will undoubtedly claim ignorance and let someone else take the fall.

Should we believe Sestak? The only denial of his claims by the administration thus far have been from a single anonymous official. Robert Gibbs has ducked the question three times. If no one is willing to attach their name to this, it's hard to believe they have nothing to hide. It's also hard to believe Sestak, a former Navy admiral, would want to make enemies at the White House before he even entered the Senate.

Car czar #1 headed to prison?

Before Mao Tse-tung enthusiast Ron Bloom was handed the position of car czar, there was Steve Rattner. Rattner managed the billion-dollars bailout to the automobile industry and the government takeover of GM and Chrysler. His good fortune has since run out.

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said today that Steven Rattner, the banker and Democratic donor who led the Obama administration's restructuring of the automobile industry, remains under investigation in his office's long probe of the former New York State Comptroller, Alan Hevesi.

A top Hevesi aide, David Loglisci, pled guilty today to knowledge of corruption in the comptroller's office, where a top political aide, Hank Morris, allegedly controlled the contracts to manage hundreds of millions of dolllars. The original Loglisci indictment included the fact that Rattner, one of the politically-connected money managers who was given access to the money of New York State public workers, also financed a low-budget, money-losing movie called "Chooch," which happened to be produced by Loglisci's brother.

David Loglisci's brother, Steve, made the film "Chooch" backed by Rattner's financing. ("Chooch" is an Italian word connoting an idiot.) If Rattner dipped into state money to finance Steve Loglisci's film thanks to David's influence, the man who managed Obama's massive auto company bailout could be headed to prison.

Rattner resigned his position as car czar in May 2009, claiming he wanted to return to the private sector. More likely Obama knew investigators were circling and didn't want Rattner to become a liability. Rattner is being investigated chiefly by New York Attorney General and Senate hopeful Andrew Cuomo, a close ally of Obama's. It has yet to be seen whether Obama will pull a few strings to keep the former car czar safe.

McCain calls out Obama's corruption

At the health care summit today, Sen. John McCain hammered Obama for the corrupt deals that helped the health care bill pass.

You have to love Obama's condescending dismissal of McCain at the end. "The election's over." McCain must have struck a nerve.