Kevin Johnson Blames Teachers Union For Sexual Abuse And Harassment Allegations

It's not KJ's fault that he has multiple allegations of sexual abuse and sexual harassment lodged against him - it's his "enemies" in the teachers union:

Mr. Johnson suggested that the attacks were being orchestrated by political opponents, starting with the teachers’ unions. Before he took office, a nonprofit organization he created wrestled control of the Sacramento High School and turned it into a charter school, ousting the unionized teaching staff.

“I ended up turning the high school I went to into a charter high school,” he said in the interview before his announcement. “And as a result, I probably made a lot of enemies in the teachers’ union. California and Sacramento are ground zero when it comes to one of the strongest special interest groups in the country. I did what I thought was right for kids. I created problems and enemies back then, and they have been enemies for life.”

The mayor said he realized this issue would come up when he considered running for office in 2008, eight years after he retired from professional basketball. “It was very clear to me that when I had to make a decision on whether I was going to run for mayor or not, that the allegations would resurface,” he said. “I didn’t have any inkling that they would dog me throughout my political career, but that’s the reality of it.”

Perhaps he thought he could survive the allegations the way Bill Clinton survived his.

Maybe he would have, but for the video tape and the age of the girl at the time of the alleged abuse.

But bet that the allegations made against him at St. Hope, his charter school, along with the sexual harassment complaint filed against him by a Sacramento city employee and some unseemly behavior with another woman who worked for the National Conference of Black Mayors, didn't help matters.

I read somewhere last night that the national media were starting to dig into the story that Dave McKenna of Deadspin had done so much to move forward.

If that's the case, we may yet get more to this story that not only puts an end to Johnson's political career, but finishes him off Cosby-style too.

Same could happen with his wife, Michelle Rhee, since she is alleged to have helped him cover up sexual misconduct allegations at his charter school.

Kevin Johnson, Dogged By Sex Abuse Claim, Will Not Seek Re-Election

And he's claiming it's teachers union who have dredged up the 20 year old sex abuse claim:

SACRAMENTO — It should have been a high point in a career of high points: the premiere of a documentary chronicling how Kevin Johnson, the former N.B.A. All Star who as mayor helped rejuvenate this once ailing capital city, kept the Sacramento Kings from leaving for Seattle with a gleaming new basketball arena.

But hours before the premiere last week, the ESPN network, which produced the documentary, “Down in the Valley,” announced it would delay indefinitely the national release of the film. The network cited the re-emergence of an issue that has shadowed Mr. Johnson since his first campaign in 2008: A claim by a 16-year-old girl that he sexually abused her 20 years ago while he played for the Phoenix Suns.

...

Mr. Johnson has repeatedly denied the accusation and made no mention of it in his statement. In an interview on Friday, he asserted that the case was being dredged up by his opponents — including the teachers’ union, with which he has battled over the years — to hurt him politically.

“There are no truth to the allegations,” he said. “If you go back 20 years ago, they were investigated. Law enforcement obviously didn’t feel there was merit there. For me I’ve just tried to move on and go forward.”

The Phoenix Police Department investigated the claim but closed the case without filing charges. Mr. Johnson entered a draft settlement which included a $230,000 payment to his accuser. The mayor declined to comment when asked why, if the charges were unfounded, he had agreed to make a payout.

What is different this time is a videotape of a police interview in which the girl, speaking in a calm voice, describes in disconcerting detail what she said Mr. Johnson did to her, including fondling and undressing her. The release of the video, posted on Deadspin, a website devoted to sports news, put a young and vulnerable voice to claims that until now had been only a detached account found in court filings.

“People have so desperately wanted to believe in him that they’ve given him a pass on a lot of things, and I think that has worked out generally to the city’s advantage,” Steve Hansen, a Democratic City Council member and critic of Mr. Johnson’s, said before the announcement. “The wall of not knowing how to deal with his problems, but choosing to ignore the failures in hopes of the promise, has begun to collapse. Once you saw the video and read the story, it was hard to pretend it never happened.”

Johnson claims the Phoenix allegation was investigated and dispensed with 20 years ago.

But what about the abuse allegations from his St Hope charter school?

Or the sexual harassment suit filed against him by a city employee?

And how about that blaming the teachers union for dragging his name through the mud with these allegations?

Here's a guy so reflexive in his teacher-bashing that he just doesn't understand that, post-Cosby, he just can't dismiss these allegations with that shit-eating grin of his and a little help from his wife, Michelle Rhee (who allegedly helped with the St. Hope cover-up.)

Not with that video of the alleged victim:

Although Mr. Johnson argued last week that the accusation had not hurt him with voters, officials in both parties said the video would have made it hard to win a third term. After ESPN announced it was shelving the documentary, the city's Democratic leader, Ms. Asbury urged Mr. Johnson not to seek re-election

The video came at a time of heightened scrutiny of the kind of behavior that once might have been disregarded, as other figures in American public life have been discredited by accusations of sexual misconduct.

 

Here's hoping the St. Hope allegations get some more scrutiny because it's pretty clear that the Obama administration, along with his wife Rhee, helped Johnson cover them up and make them go away.

And Rhee should get some scrutiny for helping KJ cover his crimes up.

When Rhee fired teachers in D.C., she defended the firings by claiming some were sexual predators.

That turned out to be a lie from Ms. Rhee - or projection, since she appears to be married to a predator herself.

Rhee and Johnson have both fallen from grace, but given their respective crimes, they haven't fallen far enough in my estimation.

Cuomo Embraces Biden To Try And Circumvent Criminal Investigation Over Moreland?

Governor Cuomo had several high profile appearances with Vice President Joe Biden the past few weeks in which Cuomo touted Biden as a presidential candidate even as the candidate Cuomo is allegedly backing, Hillary Clinton, struggles with political problems and falling poll numbers.

Fred Dicker's column today has three possible theories for why Cuomo is touting Biden, a move which is surely pissing off the Clintons and harming her at a time when she needs all the help she can get.

The first one is, Cuomo hopes to be Biden's VP if Biden were to win the nomination.

The third one is, Cuomo's looking to stick it to Bill de Blasio any way he can and touting Biden (and stealing away de Basio's minimum wage increase issue with Biden) was just another opportunity to do so.

I'm not sure I buy either of those theories, but Theory # 2 certainly seems plausible to me:

The second theory holds that Cuomo has been promoting Biden to put pressure on Attorney General Loretta Lynch, Southern District US Attorney Preet Bharara, and possibly Obama himself to block or terminate Bharara’s investigation of Cuomo’s shutdown last year of the corruption-fighting Moreland Commission and allegations he or his aides sought to interfere with the probe.

“There’s no way Preet would bring an action against Cuomo without Lynch and probably Obama himself signing off, and Biden would be right in the middle of that,’’ said a prominent New York City official.

Many Republicans also subscribe to that theory.

“Obama and his attorney general will make the decision on whether there will be a criminal prosecution of Cuomo, and one way of trying to avoid this is by embracing the vice president at the expense of Secretary Clinton,’’ said national GOP consultant John McLaughlin.

In court filings the feds made this week in the case against Sheldon Silver, prosecutors revealed that two out of the three Moreland Commission co-chairs and the chief of investigations all felt that Cuomo and his staff interfered into the commission's work.

The third co-chair, Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick has defended Cuomo publicly but his wife is a judge who was up for reappointment by Cuomo, so his statements are a bit suspect, especially since the NY Times reported that privately he too complained of Cuomo's interference into the commission.

Theory # 2 is certainly plausible.

The Obama administration has circumvented investigations into pals before.

The one that immediately comes to mind is Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, the self-described "Little Obama":

As Deadspin notes, there's "a variety of sexual, financial, and ethical improprieties" swirling around Johnson. Among other things, the mayor is suing -- and being sued -- by the National Conference of Black Mayors. And Johnson is also accused of using public money and resources for his own personal benefit involving work done for the National Basketball Players Association.

That last scandal is particularly interesting, because it mirrors accusations made against him in 2009, when he was accused of misusing federal grants meant for the Americorps program by Gerald Walpin, the inspector general of the Corporation for National and Community Service:

The most significant issue appeared to be Mr. Walpin’s actions in connection with St. Hope Academy of California, which was run by Mr. Johnson and Dana Gonzalez. St. Hope Academy received federal money from 2004 to 2007 from AmeriCorps. Mr. Walpin said a large amount of the money was spent improperly, some of it on personal expenses.

Mr. Walpin made a referral to the United States prosecutor in Sacramento, recommending that Mr. Johnson and Mr. Gonzalez face criminal charges and be banned from future contracts.

According to Walpin, the chairman of the board of the Corporation for National and Community Service, Alan Solomont, was a major Democratic fundraiser and was unhappy with his reports pointing out the misuse of federal money. Johnson was also said to be close to the Obamas, and shortly afterward the president abruptly fired Walpin from his job. The firing set off a flurry of inquiries from a bipartisan group of senators concerned that Walpin's firing had been been politically motivated. There were also allegations that the U.S. attorney in Sacramento, Lawrence Brown, filed an ethics complaint against Walpin to help lift a ban on Johnson receiving federal funds as well as curry favor with the White House. Brown was seeking a presidential appointment to become United States attorney for the Eastern District of California.

Now Johnson remains mired in scandal six years later and is being accused of allegations of corruption very similar to what was first alleged by Walpin. And in the intervening years, the Obama administration has acquired quite the reputation for selectively enforcing laws against compromised allies and for the vigorous prosecution of political enemies on dubious grounds. Johnson's current troubles certainly suggest that the president was wrong to fire Walpin, and are an unpleasant reminder of the Chicago-style politics that have come to define this administration's questionable uses of political power.

Cuomo's interference into the commission - including the potential that Cuomo short-circuited the commission in a quid pro quo deal with either Sheldon Silver, Dean Skelos or both - leaves him open to at the very least an investigation by the feds.

From the KJ/Walpin scandal, it's pretty clear Obama will step in to help a pal out of some legal trouble and it's quite plausible that's what Cuomo's counting on here with the Biden bromance.

It's also plausible that Cuomo's just hedging his bets as Clinton's poll numbers and chances at getting elected continue to fall.

But given the court filing on Friday revealing that two out of the three Moreland co-chairs and the chief of investigations felt Cuomo and his staff were interfering in their work, I lean toward Theory # 2 from the Dicker column.

Michelle Rhee's Husband, Kevin Johnson, Target Of New Sexual Harassment Complaint

The Sacramento Bee:

A former aide in the Sacramento city manager’s office filed a claim last month against Mayor Kevin Johnson alleging the mayor sexually harassed her multiple times over a seven-month period at City Hall, according to a copy of the claim obtained by The Sacramento Bee.

The employee – identified in the claim as Estrellita Ilee Muller, 32 – alleged that she was summoned to the mayor’s private library at City Hall by Johnson’s security officer and that the mayor pressed his body against her, felt her torso and tried to kiss her. Muller filed the claim with the City Clerk’s office in April and is seeking $200,000 in damages, according to the document. She also filed a formal discrimination complaint with the city’s human resources director in October 2014 – a complaint that was found insufficient by that office.

Read the whole Bee article - the city's investigation into the complaint sounds rigged for the "insufficient evidence" outcome.

This would not be the first time Kevin Johnson has been accused of sexual harassment and or other sexual-related crimes - he has a pattern of this kind of behavior:

In 1997, Johnson signed a draft confidential settlement with a Phoenix teenager who had claimed the former NBA player molested her, according to a copy of the document obtained by The Bee in 2008. The agreement amount was $230,000, according to the document.

The settlement stemmed from a 1996 investigation by Phoenix police into an allegation that Johnson, who was 29 at the time, disrobed in the presence of a 16-year-old girl and touched her inappropriately. The allegations were made to police by the girl’s therapist.

Johnson denied the allegations and no criminal charges were filed in the case.

In 2008, soon after Johnson launched his first mayoral campaign, a police report filed by a former teacher from Sacramento High School surfaced alleging that a 17-year-old student at the school told the teacher Johnson had approached her from behind, massaged her shoulders and touched her breasts.

Sacramento police later said the girl recanted her story and found the allegation to be unfounded.

Johnson founded the nonprofit St. HOPE organization that operates Sacramento High School as a charter school.

A separate allegation made in teacher Erik Jones’ report charged that Johnson tried to get into bed with a volunteer from the Hood Corps program, an urban volunteer program that was part of St. Hope. Police did not investigate that allegation because the young woman was not a minor.

There are not at least four allegations against Johnson - the 16-year old in Phoenix, the 17 year at KJ's charter school, a teacher at the same charter school and now a city employee.

The Muller complaint alleges there are other incidents with city employees that have been covered up:

The claim states that Muller’s supervisors at City Hall “failed to take appropriate action to protect” her from the alleged incident or “subsequent incidents of harassment.” The claim states Muller told “several representatives of the city regarding the conduct of Mr. Johnson on several separate occasions” and that those representatives “offered no helpful advice and took no action in response to receiving the information.”

“Plaintiff alleges on information and belief that Mr. Johnson had acted inappropriately with respect to other city employees and representatives in the past and that representatives of the city knew, or had reason to know, of facts establishing this,” the claim states. “Notwithstanding this, city representatives did nothing to effectively deal with the situation or to protect plaintiff and similarly situated employees.”

Imagine Kevin Johnson was a teacher instead of Michelle Rhee's husband.

What would Campbell Brown, Michelle Rhee, and the rest of the education reform contingent be saying about this?

Right now all we get from them is silence.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/news-columns-blogs/city-beat/article21025047.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/news-columns-blogs/city-beat/article21025047.html#storylink=c

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/news-columns-blogs/city-beat/article21025047.html#storylink=cpy

Andrew Cuomo Deals From Michelle Rhee's "Perv Teacher" Fear Card Deck

Governor Cuomo yesterday:

"The teachers’ union represents the teachers. I understand that. … I represent the students and I want to do the best we can for the students and for their education," he said. "One of the issues we have to work through where the teachers’ union doesn’t agree with me is, I want to evaluate teachers, and I want to be able to get bad teachers out of the classroom.

“I understand the union’s issue; they don’t want anyone fired,” Cuomo said. “But we have teachers that have been found guilty of sexually abusing students who we can’t get out of the classroom. We have a process where literally it takes years and years to get a bad teacher out of the classroom. And I understand the teachers’ rights, but I also understand the students’ rights. And the Albany government, the Albany media, is very responsive to the teachers’ union and their groups. I get it. But the students have rights, too. And this whole education system is about the students.”

See what's he's doing there?

Mary Ahern did:

@TeacherArthurG @nbianculli @perdidostschool He's blurring issue of faulty VAM w/the sexual offenders scenario to play on ppls' worst fears.
— Mary Ahern (@mma718) January 1, 2015

So did Arthur Goldstein:

He's talking about people who were convicted of nothing anywhere. Like Andrew Cuomo, so far. @nbianculli @perdidostschool
— Arthur Goldstein (@TeacherArthurG) January 1, 2015

So did Nick Bianculli:

@mma718 @TeacherArthurG @perdidostschool His claim of teachers found guilty of sexual misconduct w/out losing jobs must be substantiated
— Nick Bianculli (@nbianculli) January 1, 2015

@mma718 @TeacherArthurG @perdidostschool And yes, eval of teachers and sexual misconduct by teachers are two completely different issues
— Nick Bianculli (@nbianculli) January 1, 2015

Cuomo's fear mongerig is straight out of the Michelle Rhee/Campbell Brown education reformer playbook.

Whenever they want to try and turn the public against teachers, they trot out the "Perv Teacher" fear card and play it liberally - even when the whole thing is made up.

Michelle Rhee, for example, fired 266 teachers in Washington D.C. when she was schools chancellor, claiming that they were sexual and physical abusers of children.

She was lying, er, "misspeaking":

Michelle A. Rhee, the chancellor of District of Columbia schools, finds herself at the center of a controversy again, this time over comments attributed to her in a business magazine saying that some teachers who were laid off last fall had sexually and physically abused students.

Rhee laid off 266 teachers and a few dozen administrators in October in an effort to close a budget gap, a move that led to student protests, a lawsuit by the local teachers' union, and a contentious face-off with the local city council. Rhee was accused by her detractors of using the budget as an excuse to lay off veteran teachers without having to work with seniority rules.
 
But her response defending her actions to Fast Company startled many.

"I got rid of teachers who had hit children, who had had sex with children, who had missed 78 days of school," Rhee told Fast Company. "Why wouldn't we take those things into consideration?"

Rhee's comments, first circulated over the weekend in D.C-area media, sent shockwaves around the region and beyond, invoking the ire of many teachers and some of Rhee's sharpest critics, including the local teachers' union president and the city council chairman.

"With a callous, nonspecific statement that names no one and thus blames all, Michelle Rhee has called into question the ethics of 266 men and women, and she's done it in a way that gives these individuals almost no recourse to defend themselves," George Parker, president of the Washington Teachers Union, wrote in a letter to D.C. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty, who is Rhee's boss. Parker asked Rhee to apologize to teachers in his letter.

Questions immediately arose. If these teachers had been physically and sexually abusing children, why were they allowed to remain until a budget crunch required dismissing teachers? How many of the 266 teachers had been abusing students?

As the Washington City Paper explains, Rhee and other school officials are required by law to immediately report any suspected abuse of children they are aware of.

I asked Rhee on Monday to shed light on the context in which she made her comments and if she had moved to take any legal or disciplinary action against those teachers who had allegedly abused students before the October layoffs. Answers to me—and the legions of other people wanting an answer—were slow in coming.

After nearly five days of silence on the matter, Rhee responded to us all a short time ago via a two-page letter she wrote to the council chairman and two other members about their numerous concerns.

The chancellor said her comment to Fast Company was made "some time ago" while explaining that teacher performance and not just seniority was an important factor considered in deciding who to terminate during the layoffs caused by a budget cut.

"I was describing the kind of conduct that was appropriate to take into account in implementing the reduction in force," she wrote. "The examples I gave involved a very small minority of the teachers who were terminated in the budget reduction."

How small a minority? Rhee says one teacher had "serious allegations of sexual misconduct," and that teacher had been removed from the school immediately. The case was referred to police, and the teacher was not in the classroom during the time of the layoffs, she said.

Six employees who were laid-off had been previously suspended for using corporal punishment on students. Two employees had served suspensions for "being AWOL on multiple occasions and several other employees had egregious time and attendance records." In the case of these actions, the discipline procedures embedded in union contracts prescribed suspension, rather than firing for those offenses.

Have you got those numbers now?

One teacher accused of sexual misconduct, already taken out of the classroom.

Six teachers with previous suspensions for "corporal punishment."

Two with previous suspensions for being AWOL.

But she said this:

"I got rid of teachers who had hit children, who had had sex with children, who had missed 78 days of school," Rhee told Fast Company. "Why wouldn't we take those things into consideration?"

Nonetheless Rhee felt no compunction to apologize to the vast majority of teachers who weren't accused of having "sex with children" or hitting children.

Ironically Rhee is married to a man who has been accused of multiple events of sexual misconduct and was alleged by a US Inspector General to have helped him cover up some of those allegations, but that's a story for another time.

The point here is, whenever reformers want to drive up public outrage against teachers, they play the "Perv Teacher" fear card and conflate the issue with whatever other issues they want.

As Mary Ahern noted in her tweet, Cuomo's conflating sexual misconduct (which no one I know defends - certainly not the UFT, as Mike Mulgrew's response to Campbell Brown shows) with evaluation of so-called teacher effectiveness.

That Cuomo feels the need to conflate the two and play the "Perv Teacher" fear card shows you how little confidence he has in his argument that the public education system needs to be broken.

It also shows you how scummy Cuomo is.

Like Rhee, he has no problem smearing teachers as criminals in order to get them off the payroll.

Is Bill Cosby Still On The StudentsFirst Board? (UPDATED - 10:40 AM)

StudentsFirst seems to have scrubbed their website a bit.

When I put in a Google search for Bill Cosby + Board of Directors + StudentsFirst, here's what comes up:

StudentsFirst Board of Directors | StudentsFirst.org

https://www.studentsfirst.org/board-directors

StudentsFirst

One of America's most beloved comedians of all time, Bill Cosby has captivated generations of fans with his comedy routines, iconic albums and best-selling ...

And yet, when you click on that link, you don't find the page with the Board of Directors listed or the page with Cosby listed as sitting on the board.

Instead, you just get the StudentsFirst.Org page.

I looked around the StudentsFirst website, including under the "Who We Are" tab.

The Board of Directors page seems to have disappeared from the site.

Now I see plenty of stories about Cosby joining StudentsFirst back in September 2012.

I even see a video of him talking about StudentsFirst and education reform.

But I don't see any stories about him stepping down.

Strange that StudentsFirst.org has lots of information about "Meeting Their Team" - including Michelle Rhee - and learning about their "Mission," but alas, no information about their board.

You'd think they want to publicize information about their board, especially since there are some real luminaries sitting on it, including Roland Martin, Joel Klein, Connie Chung and Bill Cosby.

It's as if something happened recently that made them decide to scrub their Board of Directors page, but rather than own up to it, they did it in the dark and hoped nobody noticed.

Now it's possible I've gotten this all wrong here and I'm just missing the information about the Board of Directors at StudentsFirst and all the wonderful members on it.

It's possible that I'm just missing the information about Cosby and his commitment to education reform and children on the Studentsfirst website.

Or it's possible that Cosby stepped down and I'm missing the notice for that on the World Wide Web.

Though I don't think this is the case - Valerie Strauss has a Washington Post piece dated August 13, 2014 about Michelle Rhee stepping down from StudentsFirst and joining Miracle Gro and Cosby is said to still be a member of the StudentsFirst board as of that date.

So it seems likely Cosby was still a member of the StudentsFirst Board of Directors when the sexual assault allegations against Cosby that have long been in the public domain went viral the past few weeks.

It seems that StudentsFirst wanted to distance themselves from the sexual assault (including statutory rape) allegations against Cosby as quickly and as quietly as they could.

If they did want to distance themselves from Cosby and the growing scandal around him, it's a shame they didn't go public and explain EXACTLY why they wanted to do that.

Berklee College of Music did just that with a scholarship Cosby sponsored at the school.

Alas, it seems the "students first" people at StudentsFirst haven't take that same route.

That's a shame - this could have been a teachable moment for us all, as the "Blame Teachers First" crowd turned on one of their own who looks to be a serial sexual assaulter.

You can bet if this was a teacher alleged to have committed these egregious acts, the StudentsFirst crowd wouldn't have gone quietly.

But they seem to have taken the coward's route out instead and scrubbed him away in the middle of the night.

If I've gotten any of this wrong, I will publicly apologize to StudentsFirst and Michelle Rhee herself  for vilifying them for secretly scrubbing their ties away to a man alleged to have committed at least 18 acts of sexual assault and more coming out every day.

Just let me know, StudentsFirst folks.

Is Bill Cosby still a member of your board or not?

UPDATED - 10:40 AM: Patrick Sullivan left the following comment on the post:

 Looks like they took their board page down. Google has a cached copy as of 10/31 that includes Cosby. This link should bring it up:

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:mWnrmFEAN-QJ:https://www.studentsfirst.org/board-directors

It seems Michelle Rhee and StudentsFirst did not have the guts to go public with their cutting Cosby loose.

Too bad, but not unexpected.

After all, Rhee helped sexual misconduct allegations against her husband, Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, go away.

It seems Ms. Rhee and her fellow ed deformers are only looking for accountability against people who are accused of sexual misconduct when they're teachers.

Awaiting The Campbell Brown Denouncement Of Bill Cosby

Here's where education reformer Campbell Brown denounced the teachers unions for defending 97 teachers or school employees accused of sexual misconduct over a five year period in NYC.

97 teachers and staff accused (not convicted, btw - just accused) is slightly more than 0.001% of the teaching and school staff overall.

Still, Brown says this is a major problem and the system needs major reforms.

She has gone on TV and written about this repeatedly to educate the public about the need for reform.

Meanwhile fellow education reformer Bill Cosby has been accused of raping 16 women over the course of his career.

Every day now a new allegation against Cosby surfaces - there were two just yesterday (including a TMZ story in which an actress alleges Cosby assaulted her in the dressing room of the Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.)

One commenter at Perdido Street School writes:

Where is Campbell Brown when you need her? Oh, she is only interested in alleged teacher predators.

Indeed, here's the silence we have from Brown on Cosby.

Another teacher-basher, Whoopi Goldberg, actually defended Cosby earlier this week, saying that she has many questions for one of Cosby's accusers.

I wonder what teacher bashers like Brown or Goldberg would be saying were there a teacher out there who had 16 allegations of sexual assault lodged against him, with a new one surfacing every day?

I bet silence (in Brown's case) and defense (in Goldberg's case) would not be the response.

Funny how that goes.

Brown's been silent on her another education reformer's alleged sexual misconduct.

Her husband, neo-con Dan Senor, sits on the board of Michelle Rhee's StudentsFirst even though Rhee is alleged to have helped cover up her husband, Kevin Johnson's, sexual misconduct with employees of his charter school.

The hypocrisy of education reformers like Campbell Brown and teacher bashers like Whoopi Goldberg knows no bounds.

It seems any teacher accused of anything is guilty automatically and ought to be fired.

But fellow education reformers and celebrities like Cosby and KJ - they're entitled to a stonewall defense.

Bill Cosby And Kevin Johnson - Brothers In Education Reform AND Sexual Predation

When Diane Ravitch blogged in 2012 that Bill Cosby was joining Michelle Rhee's StudentsFirst board, I left the following comment on her post, comparing Cosby to Rhee's husband, Kevin Johnson:

reality-based educator

September 17, 2012 at 6:13 pm

Actually Bill Cosby was accused of drugging and sexually assaulting a 32 year old woman in 2004. She tried to bring a criminal case against him in 2005, but police declined to file charges. She brought civil charges against him. Her attorneys found 10 other women who also claimed to have been drugged and sexually assaulted by Cosby in the past. Nine were listed anonymously in the court documents, one made the accusations publicly. The court documents are here:

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/crime/bill-cosbys-prior-bad-acts

The LA Times covered the story, including the settlement Cosby reached with the woman, here:

http://articles.latimes.com/2006/nov/09/news/wk-cosby9

Cosby settled the 2005 case for an undisclosed amount, the alleged victim of the assault signed a non-disclosure agreement, so no other details of the case emerged. But People magazine covered the aftermath and interviewed three other women who claimed they had been drugged by Cosby and assaulted. People also reported that Cosby had paid off several women who had made these accusations in the past against Cosby.

http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20059561,00.html

I have two things to say about this:

First, Cosby fits right in with Kevin Johnson, Rhee’s husband, who himself has at least two accusations of sexual misconduct lodged against him (one by a minor.)

Second, how dare anybody with so many accusations leveled against him in the past lecture people about bad behavior, as Cosby has been known to do?

I stand by that comment tonight- both the Cosby part and the KJ part.

Cosby still fits in at StudentsFirst, which was founded by a woman who made sexual misconduct allegations against her boyfriend (now husband) go away.

Cosby lost his Netflix special, NBC canceled a sitcom they were developing with him and TVLand has stopped running The Cosby Show reruns.

While Cosby is free from the criminal justice system since all of the reported acts happened long ago, his career and reputation are in tatters.

His fellow ed deformer Kevin Johnson, however, remains free and clear tonight, still in power as mayor of Sacramento, even though he's got at least two accusations against him for sexual misconduct.

Isn't it time somebody revisits the Michelle Rhee/Kevin Johnson sexual misconduct case and cover-up again?

Education Reformers Turned On Michelle Rhee

Mostly because she sucked:

StudentsFirst was hobbled by a high staff turnover rate, embarrassing PR blunders and a lack of focus. But several leading education reformers say Rhee’s biggest weakness was her failure to build coalitions; instead, she alienated activists who should have been her natural allies with tactics they perceived as imperious, inflexible and often illogical. Several said her biggest contribution to the cause was drawing fire away from them as she positioned herself as the face of the national education reform movement.

“There was a growing consensus in the education reform community that she didn’t play well in the sandbox,” one reform leader said.

Gee, I am shocked, shocked to find out Michelle Rhee was imperious, illogical, inflexible and didn't play well with others.

Now we're starting to get stories of Rhee's hubris not from her "enemies" but her former allies:

And her fellow education reformers tell remarkably consistent stories about their frustration with Rhee and the organization she founded.

 In Connecticut, Minnesota, Florida and elsewhere, activists said StudentsFirst often swooped in with pre-fab policy agendas set by national strategists operating out of its Sacramento headquarters.

Rhee’s state directors then promoted those policies and only those policies, without regard to local needs or political realities, according to activists who tried to work with them. In at least one case, the StudentsFirst team insisted on pushing legislation that clashed with other state laws and would have been impossible to implement, sources said.

“They’d walk around with a 15-point legislative agenda and a legislator would say, ‘What are your top two on the list?’ and they would say, ‘Nope, we need all 15,’ — so then they got zero,” one activist said. “They were policy purists in a way that made them seem oblivious to political reality.”

...

An education reform leader familiar with her tactics said Rhee made audacious demands of potential backers — once asking for $50 million from a single donor. (She got $1 million, this source said.)

That's Oprah's "warrior woman" in crystallized form - her way or the highway.

So, she's been told "Hit the highway!"

What more will we learn about Michelle Rhee now that the education reformer knives are out for her?

Daily News Picks Up Deadspin Report On Sexual Misconduct Allegations Against Kevin Johnson

From the NY Daily News:

In the days leading up to Donald Sterling’s lifetime ban from the NBA, one of the strongest advocates for disciplining the Clippers’ owner was former All-Star guard and current Sacramento, Calif., mayor Kevin Johnson.

“The players are waiting for the commissioner to act decisively,” Johnson said in late April, speaking on behalf of the players’ union. “They want the maximum of what the constitution and bylaws will allow and we’re trying to figure out what that is. They want a decision to be made quickly and decisively. If you don’t respect the players in this league, then the values that we all espouse are for naught. If what has been alleged and stated is authentic then there must be sanctions that make it clear that the NBA family will have zero tolerance for such conduct today, tomorrow or ever.”

Johnson got his wish when NBA commissioner Adam Silver banned Sterling for life and fined him $2.5 million after Sterling admitted he made the racist comments in a taped conversation between himself and his former girlfriend.

But while Johnson may be viewed as a strong, moral voice in the Sterling saga, a Deadspin report published last week revisited dark chapters in the California politician’s past — including alleged sexual misconduct by Johnson when he was the president and CEO of St. HOPE Academy, a charter school organization he founded in Sacramento — and misuse of federal funds the school received.

The St. HOPE matter came less than a decade after Johnson, according to a joint U.S. Senate and House report, paid “$230,000 to resolve claims brought by a Phoenix teenager who alleged Johnson molested her.”

Arizona prosecutors never filed criminal charges against Johnson in that matter but an investigation into the ex-NBA guard’s tenure at St. HOPE ultimately led to an August 2008 referral to the U.S. Attorney’s office in the Eastern District of California by the Inspector General for the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) “for criminal and civil prosecution of Kevin Johnson” and another St. HOPE executive for misuse of federal funds.

“I will tell you that my staff, which had a totally nonpolitical agenda, looked into all the allegations,” says Gerald Walpin, the former Inspector General for the CNCS, whose office ultimately made the referral to the U.S. Attorney’s office to prosecute Johnson the same year the former hoops star ran for mayor of Sacramento. Walpin was fired by President Obama in the ensuing fallout. “I would not have referred it to the U.S. Attorney’s office unless there was evidence beyond a reasonable doubt. And there was no doubt that there was established documentary evidence of misuse of federal funds.”

Read the whole Daily News piece, read the more detailed Deadspin piece by Dave McKenna they picked up on and ask yourself this question:

How did Kevin Johnson get away with what he got away with and why is he considered anything other than a sexual predator?

Just A Reminder About Michelle Rhee

This isn't the first time there have been allegations about her running a cover-up:

Here is Washington City Paper piece back in 2009 covering allegations of a cover-up of a sex misconduct scandal involving her husband, Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson:

Stories broke this morning in the Los Angeles Times and in the Examiner reporting that D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee took an active role in investigations of her fiance, Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson.

Allow LL to explicate a little more fully what this is and what Rhee is alleged to have done.
Rhee's involvement in Johnson's dealing has been revealed as part of an investigation by two congressional Republicans into the firing of Gerald Walpin, who had served as inspector general for the federal AmeriCorps program until June. Republicans allege that Walpin was fired by the Obama administration for political reasons—in particular, for pressing his investigation of mismanagement of federal funds by St. Hope, the nonprofit founded by prominent Democrat and Obama ally Johnson. The Republican report [PDF], released today, concludes that the White House's decision to fire Walpin was "based on incomplete and misleading information"; that a White House lawyer's explanation for the firing is "not credible"; and that the firing "is likely to have a chilling effect on the IG community." In other words, there's a lot of political posturing going on here.

But along with their report, the Republicans also released Walpin's IG report on St. Hope, which includes interview notes indicating that Rhee got involved after a St. Hope employee reported being "touched inappropriately" by Johnson.

Rhee's involvement in the probe stems from the statements of Jacqueline Wong-Hernandez, a former St. Hope staff member, to federal investigators. According to an interview report, Wong-Hernandez told an investigator that Rhee was well known as someone who filled several roles with Johnson's St. Hope organization and would use Johnson's office when she was in town. Wong-Hernandez said that Rhee 'played the role as "Damage Control". When there was a problem at St. HOPE, Ms. Rhee was there the next day taking care of the problem.'

When the sexual misconduct allegations were raised, Rhee contacted Wong-Hernandez to figure out what had happened, telling her "she was making this her number one priority and she would take care of the situation." Subsequently, Wong-Hernandez found out that Johnson's lawyer had contacted the accuser, after which the accuser dropped the complaint.

Disgusted with how the incident had been handled, Wong-Hernandez quit St. Hope, and it was Rhee who conducted the exit interview. She told Rhee the reason she was leaving was the way St. Hope had handled the sexual misconduct allegation. According to the interview report, "Ms, Wong-Hernandez also informed Ms. Rhee that she didn't trust the management at St. HOPE. Ms. Rhee documented the interview in her daily planner and responded to Ms. Wong-Hernandez by thanking her for bringing it to her attention how disorganized the program had become. Ms. Rhee didn't try to talk Ms. Wong-Hernandez into staying."

The L.A. Times further reports that Rhee spoke directly to Walpin, having discussions "in which she made the case for Johnson and the school he ran in Sacramento" and described Johnson as "a good guy." Still, the paper reports, "Rhee's position had little effect on [Walpin], who filed a criminal referral to the U.S. attorney on Johnson....But both the Sacramento police and federal attorneys declined to pursue charges."

When Walpin's report had to say regarding Johnson's sexual misconduct was a relatively minor part of the report, which focused on misappropriation of federal funds and other serious-but-less-salacious charges. But allow LL to share what Walpin turned up—the first instance related in the report is what was described to Rhee by Wong-Hernandez; it's unknown if Rhee was aware of the other allegations below:

G. Improper Sexual Physical Conduct
Our investigation disclosed evidence of sexual misconduct towards young female Members by Mr. Johnson. One Member, [REDACTED] (Ex. 19 hereto), reported that, in the February/March 2007 time frame, she was entering grades into the SAC High database system per Mr. Johnson's instructions at the St. HOPE office at night, purportedly as part of her AmeriCorps service. [REDACTED] contacted Mr. Johnson to inform him that she had completed the grades and wanted him to review them. About 11:00 pm, Mr. Johnson arrived at St. HOPE and instructed [REDACTED] to gather her things and come with him. Mr. Johnson drove to [REDACTED] apartment, which is managed by St. HOPE Development and houses its AmeriCorps Members, purportedly so that they could review the students' grades. While in [REDACTED], in which another AmeriCorps Member had a separate bedroom, Mr, Johnson laid down on [REDACTED's] bed, [REDACTED] sat on the edge of the bed to show him the grades, at which time Mr. Johnson "layed down behind me, cupping his body around mine like the letter C. After about 2-3 minutes or so, I felt his hand on my left side where my hip bone is." Further, although not detailed in her written statement, [REDACTED], during the interview, demonstrated, while explaining, that Mr. Johnson's hand went under her untucked shirt and moved until his hand was on her hip. [REDACTED] immediately got up and stated she was done and left the room. When she returned, Mr. Johnson was still in her bed, but now apparently sleeping. Only after [REDACTED] sought to take a blanket to sleep elsewhere did Mr. Johnson exit to the living room of the apartment. [REDACTED] related that Mr. Johnson slept on the couch in her apartment living room that night and subsequently left the apartment at approximately 6 a.m. the next day.
After, as [REDACTED] put it, she "got the courage to tell... my supervisors," she reported the incident, which, she was informed, was communicated to St. HOPE Academy's Human Resources Department and the Chief Financial Officer. The night after [REDACTED] made her report, Mr. Johnson approached her and apologized. Subsequently, Kevin Hiestand, Johnson's personal attorney, met with [REDACTED], described himself only "as a friend of Johnson," and "basically asked me to keep quiet." Also, about one week after this incident, when [REDACTED] told Mr. Johnson she was going to quit because of financial and family reasons, Mr. Johnson "offered to give me $1,000 a month until the end of the program," stating that it would be confidential "between him and I." As [REDACTED] related that conversation, Mr. Johnson "said all he needed was my savings account number," he would make the deposit and "no one needed to know about it." [REDACTED] did not accept this offer by giving Mr. Johnson her account number.
Another former Member, [REDACTED] (Ex. 20 hereto), reported that, while attending a St. HOPE sponsored trip to Harlem, NY, from June 26 to July 16, 2006, Mr. Johnson, on three occasions, "brushed [her] leg with his hand," including once "flip[ingj up the edge of her skirt. Other times, she stated, Mr. Johnson kissed her cheek, brushed up against her as he walked past, and massaged her shoulders. ([REDACTED] reported another incident that occurred in Sacramento, CA, in which Mr. Johnson touched [REDACTED's] inner thigh with his hand while enroute to a restaurant. [REDACTED] said she did not report the incidents to AmeriCorps officials at that time because she feared she would be terminated from the program and because Mr. Johnson was assisting her in obtaining acceptance into the United States Military Academy, where she subsequently enrolled.
In addition, former SAC High teacher Mr. Erik Jones (Ex. 12 hereto) reported that a former AmeriCorps Member, [REDACTED], reported to him, sometime in 2007, that, while at SAC High, Mr. Johnson had inappropriately touched her. Mr. Jones stated that [REDACTED] had reported that Mr. Johnson started massaging her shoulders and then reached over and touched her breasts. (Attempts to interview [REDACTED] have been so far unsuccessful.) Mr. Jones related that, after he reported this incident to St. HOPE Academy officials, he was contacted by Mr. Hiestand, Mr. Johnson's attorney, but who identified himself solely as St. HOPE'S counsel, and stated he was conducting an internal investigation. Mr. Hiestand told Mr. Jones that [REDACTED's] "story" was different from Mr, Jones' and told Mr. Jones to change his "story" and then go back to work. Mr. Jones, realizing what he was being asked to do, elected to resign as a teacher and left SAC High.

It's important to remember that she has some experience making sure an investigation goes nowhere.

NY Times Fails To Mention Rhee/KJ Sex Abuse Scandal In Campbell Brown Story

The NY Times covered Campbell Brown's assault on teachers unions tonight.

They do mention how her husband Dan Senor sits on the board of the New York chapter of Michelle Rhee's group, StudentsFirst.

But they fail to mention how Michelle Rhee has been accused of helping a sex abuse case against her husband, former NBA star and current Sacramento mayor Kevin Johnson, go away when he was running a charter school.

Far from being an immaterial part of the story, how does Brown come off declaring the unions protectors of perverts and sex criminals when her husband sits on the board of a group run by a woman who has been accused in a Congressional committee report of helping to cover up alleged sexual misconduct by her then boyfriend and now husband?

And how can the Times cover the story without bringing this up? After all, they covered the allegations against Rhee back on November 20, 2009.

I have said it before, I will say it again - if Campbell Brown wants to go after people who protect sex criminals and perverts, she needs to look no further than Michelle Rhee.

Too bad the corporate media doesn't seem to want to connect the Rhee/Johnson sexual abuse cover-up to the Campbell Brown story.

But that's par for the course.

The media rarely have a problem dragging teachers through the mud but Michelle Rhee seems to consistently get treated with kid gloves over her alleged ethical lapses - from the widespread cheating that took place when she was chancellor of the DCPS to the allegations that she lied about her own record as a teacher to the allegations that she helped KJ cover up his sexual misconduct when he was a charter school head.

The Hypocrisy Of Campbell Brown

Eduwonk interviewed Campbell Brown post-WSJ op-ed.

Brown continues to say over and over that teachers unions are "protecting sexually predatory teachers" in the interview.

She agrees that she should have disclosed that her husband, Dan Senor, former Iraq war spokesman for the Bush administration and current Romney adviser, is a board member of the New York chapter of Michelle Rhee's StudentsFirst, but says that is immaterial to her argument - teachers unions protect sexual predators:

Critics have seized on your husband’s [Dan Senor] affiliation with the New York chapter of Students First to discredit you. In retrospect, should you have disclosed his role as a board member in the op-ed?

Yes. Absolutely. But tell me why this matters? This is just an attempt to distract people from the problem. The teachers union is protecting these teachers and they have to stop.

Neither Brown nor Eduwonk bring up the supreme irony in all of this - Brown's husband Dan sits on the board of a group run by Michelle Rhee who was accused by a federal inspector general of helping to "fix" sexual misconduct allegations made against her then boyfriend and now husband, former NBA star and current Sacramento mayor Kevin Johnson, when he was running a Sacramento charter school, including using Americorps funds to cover up Johnson's alleged sexual misconduct.

Here is the Congressional committee report detailing those allegations and the NY Times coverage of that report.

Is the allegation in the Congressional report that Rhee helped cover up her husband's sexual misconduct when he headed a charter school "relevant" to the discussion we're having over whether teachers unions, by insisting upon due process for teachers accused of sexual misconduct, are "protecting" sexual predators?

Absolutely.

If Brown is going to accuse a group of protecting sexual predators and her husband sits on the board of a group run by a woman who has been accused by a Congressional committee of protecting a sexual predator, then that surely is relevant to not only the issue being discussed but the credibility of Brown to discuss it.

But apparently neither Brown nor Eduwonk think this is the case.

The hypocrisy these people in the education reform movement exhibit knows no bounds.

That Campbell Brown was given one of the top slots at Andy Cuomo's education reform committee forum to attack teachers unions for protecting sexual predators when she herself has a connection to a group run by a woman who has been accused of protecting a sexual predator says all you need to know about Andy Cuomo's education reform committee and says all you need to know about Campbell Brown.

Neither Campbell nor the Cuomo education reform committee are looking to protect children or put students first.

They're looking to attack unions and use any method or argument at their disposal to destroy them.

That the argument they've chosen this time happens to apply to one of their own (the infamous Michelle Rhee) doesn't seem to bother them in the least.

Why Does Michelle Rhee Protect Sexual Predators (AKA, Her Husband, Kevin Johnson)?

Seriously.

I assume Campbell Brown will get right on this and write an opinion piece for the Wall Street Journal calling for the firing of Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson.

Michelle Rhee Delights In Publicly Humiliating Others

She would say this comes from her relish in "holding others accountable." I see it more as her need to publicly humiliate others while aggrandizing herself:

The most chilling episode in Richard Whitmire’s biography of Michelle Rhee occurs near the end, when Rhee says to a PBS camera crew, “I’m going to fire somebody in a little while. Do you want to see that?” Of course they did, and they taped the chancellor of the District of Columbia public schools firing a principal. The victim’s face was not shown, but the episode revealed a woman who relishes humiliating those who have the misfortune to work for her.

The irony of all of the Rhee stuff is that when the true accountability moment arrives and it becomes clearer and clearer that the test score gains achieved under her reign were due to cheating, not her educational expertise, she tries to dodge accountability for herself, first by blaming the "enemies of reform" for the scandal, then teachers and principals.

But never herself, oh no.

Like Cathie Black who played the vagina card and blamed her failure as New York City schools chancellor on sexism and misogyny (NOTE to Ms. Black: The criticism you took as schools chancellor had NOTHING to do with your genitals and EVERYTHING to do with your lack of interest in education issues and your lack of experience in schools), Michelle Rhee never misses an opportunity to hold other people accountable for alleged sins and transgressions while avoiding all accountability for herself (and her sex offender fiance.)

The accountability movement delights in accountability for other people, but never themselves.

And they definitely seem to delight in humiliating others - all in the name of "accountability."

Politico Provides PR For Michelle Rhee

A largely positive article about Michelle Rhee in Politico.

Politico even spoke to her fiance, Sacramento mayor Kevin Johnson, to hear more about her greatness.

But of course they never did ask KJ about his sexual harassment issues or the allegations that showed up in a Congressional report that Michelle Rhee tried to bribe KJ's victims to stay silent about his groping.

Ask those kinds of questions and suddenly the savior of public education just seems like a sleazy criminal.

Why "Waiting For Superman" Was Snubbed By The Oscar Academy

This analysis at the Washington City Paper sounds about right to me:

More forcefully pushed on critics, politicians and the rest of the zeitgeist than any other film in 2010, Waiting for "Superman" did not receive the Oscar nomination for Best Documentary Feature it so expected to this morning. Though the education reform plea directed by An Inconvenient Truth helmer Davis Guggenheim carried the endorsement of Oprah Winfrey, NBC News, and the White House, in the end it could not hold the same sway over the members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science's Documentary Branch. Instead, the nominations went to Exit Through the Gift Shop, Gasland, Restrepo, Inside Job, and Waste Land.

This will be my final post on Waiting for "Superman". It's no secret that while I found the film's intentions noble, it was poorly argued and heralded charter schools as a silver-bullet fix to one of the country's more complex problems, so I was quite pleased to find out this morning that it did not make the final cut for the Academy Awards.

In an end-of-year essay last month, A.O. Scott charged Guggenheim with "intellectually lazy and emotionally manipulative" filmmaking, and it was easy to see why. Waiting for "Superman" positioned former D.C. Public Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee as one of the film's heroes for her dogged moves against teachers' unions and promotion of charter schools. When I spoke to Guggenheim last September as the movie premiered, the director—a D.C. area native who attended some of the region's most prestigious private academies—was dismayed by Rhee's inevitable replacement under the mayoralty of Vincent Gray.

"I would say just because the mayor changed doesn’t means the kids have changed," Guggenheim said. "Those kids still need great schools and great teachers and they still need those reforms." But the reforms profiled in Waiting for "Superman" tended to focus on Rhee extracting unprecedented concessions from the Washington Teachers' Union in the face of the monstrously portrayed American Federation of Teachers head Randi Weingarten. And the film's lone proposal—charter schools to cure all educational woes—came with a single, fleeting mention of the statistical truth that only 20 percent of charter school outperform nearby public schools while the remainder are equivalent or worse. The institutions selected by Guggenheim were outliers, not the rule.

Still, Oscar nominations are about slick campaigns as much as they are about the films' contents. And Waiting for "Superman" was promoted as much as any documentary.

"It was as well-run an Oscar campaign as you can have for a documentary," Scott Feinberg, an awards prognosticator, told me today. "Part of the reason why, people speculate, is that the only people to see all of the eligible films (a requirement in the Documentary category) are older, retired and perhaps less in touch. Then again, they nominated Exit Through the Gift Shop."

Feinberg added that the omission of Waiting for "Superman" will go down as one of the bigger snubs in the category's history. Errol Morris' The Thin Blue Line, which led to the exoneration of a falsely convicted death-row inmate, and Hoop Dreams, the finest sports documentary ever made and one of the best on any topic, did not get nominated either. Another education documentary, The Lottery, was on the 2010 shortlist too, and could have prompted some ballot-splitting, but that film was virtually unseen compared to the Paramount Vantage-backed Waiting for "Superman".

...

One other possible explanation for the snubbing was broached by Scott this morning on WNYC's The Brian Lehrer Show. In a discussion with Slate's Dana Stevens, Scott noted that the anti-union message of Waiting for "Superman" may have turned off Oscar voters, many of whom are as actors, directors, and screenwriters, union members themselves.

***

ONE MORE THING: I attempted to be measured in this last assessment of a film I spent much more copy on than I intended. However flawed, it earned its place in an important national discussion. It was never personal. The same cannot be said for the song that accompanies the end credits. John Legend's syrupy, manipulative, detestable ballad "Shine" also failed to grab an Oscar nod, and I'll be spinning this playlist all night.

The Washington City Paper analysis fails to mention the hammer job Diane Ravtich did on the "documentary" in the New York Review of Books.

I bet that helped put a knife or two into the film.

Either way, glad to see the film snubbed.

Sad Michelle Rhee and KJ - no Oscar for you.

Sad Geoffrey Canada - no Oscar for you either.

No worries, though - there'll still be plenty of hedge fund largesse for you and perhaps a televised blowjob from Obama in the SOTU tonight when he talks "education innovation."

Michelle Rhee To Sacramento To Keep An Eye On KJ

Did anybody really think Michelle Rhee would base her ed deform operations in any city but Sacramento?

Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson announced today that the education reform organization operated by his fiancée -- former Washington, D.C., school chancellor Michelle Rhee -- will set up its headquarters here.

Rhee's goal is to raise $1 billion for the StudentsFirst organization. Its objective is to carry the same level of political influence as teacher unions and other interests in local and state elections.

Johnson made the announcement during his annual State of the City address at the Sacramento Convention Center.

Johnson said Rhee was courted by mayors around the country and that he was "not ashamed to say that I pulled out all the stops and utilized every means I had, but I managed to snag her."

Uh, huh.

Or maybe she's setting up in Sacramento so she can keep an eye on KJ.

After all, KJ has been known to have an eye for the young ladies - even underage ones.

And Rhee has been known to make potential sex scandals involving KJ disappear.

I wonder how much of the Students First money will go toward paying off future KJ victims?

Obama Gets His Scalp

Last year Obama fired an Americorps inspector-general who was investigating criminal activity by Obama allies Michelle Rhee and Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson.

That firing has been upheld in court:

The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia has rejected fired AmeriCorps inspector general Gerald Walpin's lawsuit seeking reinstatement to his job. In a ruling issued Tuesday morning, the three-judge panel -- one appointed by the first President Bush, another appointed by President Clinton, and the third appointed by the second President Bush -- agreed with a lower-court ruling that Walpin does not have a "clear and indisputable right" to his former job.

In June 2009, Walpin was the inspector general for the Corporation for National and Community Service, which oversees the AmeriCorps service program. He had been aggressively investigating the misuse of $800,000 in AmeriCorps grant money given to a program run by Kevin Johnson, the mayor of Sacramento, California who also happens to be a prominent Obama supporter. As a result of Walpin's investigation, Johnson was, for a while, suspended from receiving any new federal grants. Later, an acting U.S. attorney who was seeking a post in the Obama administration refused to pursue the Johnson matter. Inside the Corporation, Walpin expressed his unhappiness with that decision and his desire to continue investigating corruption in Sacramento.

On June 10, 2009, Walpin received a call from the White House counsel's office in which he was given one hour to resign or be fired. He chose not to resign and was fired. The action alarmed Republicans on Capitol Hill, particularly Sen. Charles Grassley, because it appeared to violate a law designed to protect the independence of inspectors general by requiring the president to give Congress 30 days' notice, plus an explanation, before firing an IG.

Later, the White House told Congress that Walpin had not been summarily fired; he had been placed on "administrative leave" for 30 days and then fired And as a reason for the firing, the White House told lawmakers that the president no longer had the "fullest confidence" in Walpin.

Walpin sued, arguing that his removal clearly violated the law. In June of 2010, Walpin lost his case before U.S. District Court in Washington. Now, he has lost before the Court of Appeals. The three-judge panel ruled that the White House's decision to place Walpin on administrative leave for 30 days (after telling him he was fired) did not violate the law. Further, the judges ruled that Obama's explanation that he no longer had "fullest confidence" in Walpin "satisfies the minimal statutory mandate that the president communicate to the Congress his 'reasons' for removal."

It is an across-the-board defeat for Walpin. But it is also a clear danger sign for the independence of inspectors general. The court's decision effectively means that the president can remove future inspectors general immediately, without notice to Congress, simply by placing an inspector general on immediate administrative leave, following by formal firing 30 days later. Also, the president can simply tell Congress he did it because he no longer has confidence in the inspector general.

Such a scenario is not what the bipartisan group of lawmakers had in mind when they crafted the protections for inspectors general. Whether they will strengthen the law as a result of the Walpin case remains to be seen.

Silly Byron York - accountability is only for teachers and principals.

Michelle Rhee can fix sex scandals all she wants and KJ can steal money all he wants.

Anybody who goes after Obama's friends gets fired.

That's how this stuff works.

It worked that way in the Bush administration too.

Remember the US attorney firing scandal?

Of course, in that scandal, it was Dems who were up in arms over the firings.

In the KJ/Rhee scandal, it's Republicans.

Where are liberal watchdogs TPM on this story?

They were all over the Bush firings.

Oh, right -they only care when it's Bush who does the unethical firings.

Obama firing an inspector-general to save his ed deform buddies?

That's fine with them.

Rhee Offered State Job In NJ

Look out New Jersey teachers - as bad as things are now under Chris Christie, they could get a whole lot worse:

Washington, D.C.’s former schools chancellor is seriously considering an offer from Gov. Chris Christie to become the state’s next education commissioner, but family concerns may prove an insurmountable stumbling block for her, two people familiar with the negotiations said.

When state officials initially approached Michelle Rhee, she quickly turned down the offer, thinking the governor wanted her to make a lateral move and run the Newark Public Schools, something Mayor Cory Booker wanted, Newark school officials said. Even Oprah Winfrey endorsed the possibility of Rhee becoming Newark’s next superintendent.

In fact, the Christie administration wanted Rhee to consider the vacant state education commissioner’s post, a more attractive offer to her because it signified a step up on the ladder of national education reform influence, according to sources who sought anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss confidential matters. But the state could not get Rhee "past the gate" because of frustration that a move to New Jersey would take her away from her family. Her husband Kevin Johnson, a former NBA All-Star, is the mayor of Sacramento, Calif.

Of course she can't spend too much time away from KJ in Sacramento because she has to keep an eye on him, you know?

Those 16 year olds are always beckoning to him.

Sometimes she has to even make those ugly sex scandals and molestation charges go away for KJ.

Yet she was in D.C. which, to my mind, isn't all that close to Sacramento either.

In fact, D.C. seems to be a helluva lot closer to Jersey than California.

So who knows what she's doing here - holding out for more money? More power? More press?

Hard to say, but whatever happens, you can be sure she will be firing teachers, closing schools and opening up charters somewhere pretty soon.