Democrat demands White House student loan records

[IChing]

Source: Reuters

By Kevin Drawbaugh

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Democratic head of the U.S. House of Representatives education committee said on Tuesday investigators probing the Bush administration's management of federal student loan programs had found "serious oversight failures by senior officials."

Amid a conflict of interest scandal that is sweeping through the $85 billion student loan industry, Rep. George Miller asked the White House to turn over e-mails and other records, including those of Education Secretary Margaret Spellings, previously a White House domestic policy adviser.

Miller, of California, also wrote to Spellings seeking records from her as well as former Education Secretary Rodney Paige, former Paige adviser Beth Ann Bryan and other staffers.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSN0121794820070501

[mike_c]

1. "serious oversight failures by senior officials."

I'm shocked! Shocked, I tell you!

[IChing]

2. Shocked

[superconnected]

3. She helped create no child left behind. She's a bush apointee.

"Prior to her tenure as Education Secretary, Spellings served as Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy, where she helped create the No Child Left Behind Act and crafted policies on education, immigration, health care, labor, transportation, justice, housing, and other elements of the President's domestic agenda. Previously, Spellings worked for six years as Senior Advisor to Governor George W. Bush with responsibility for developing and implementing the Governor's education reforms and policies. From the White House and the Statehouse to the school board and college campus, Spellings has been involved with education policy at every level."

http://www.whitehouse.gov/government/spellings-bio.html

[Joanne98]

4. Yeah, and we want ALL the emails!

[superconnected]

5. And, she's #5 on DU's to 10 conservative idiots list #184

5. Margaret Spelling
When is a cute educational TV show featuring a bunny who visits different families all over the United States actually an insidious plot to burn American morality to the ground? In the wake of the SpongeBob debacle (see Idiots 183) education secretary Margaret Spelling pressured PBS to pull an episode of the popular show "Postcards from Buster" last week, not because Buster was committing the heinous crime of learning how maple syrup is harvested, but because the people teaching Buster about maple syrup were a lesbian couple and their children. Gasp. Spelling wrote, "Many parents would not want their young children exposed to the lifestyles portrayed in the episode." Um, what about lesbian parents? I'm pretty sure they pay taxes too. Still, I guess Margaret Spelling knows best - she can obviously tell what "many parents" think, and therefore can dictate what everyone else can and can't see based on that. Score one for... um... big government.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/top10/05/184.html

[IChing]

6. Thanks I hope they get this ass-wipe

One scandal a day, geez it doesn't end.

[crossroads]

7. Well Said! nt

[donco6]

8. How can you get more innocuous?

When you try to include lifestyles and you build it around something like this - where the focus isn't on the fact that they're lesbian - and even THAT is "too potentially objectionable" - it's just appalling.

[Name removed]

9. Deleted message

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[maddezmom]

10. Yield Documents, Lawmaker Tells White House

Yield Documents, Lawmaker Tells White House
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By KAREN W. ARENSON
Published: May 2, 2007
The chairman of the House education committee asked the White House yesterday to turn over all its communications about the scandal-tarred student loan program and also Reading First, the administration’s $1-billion-a-year reading initiative, which has been besieged by accusations of conflict of interest.

The request by the lawmaker, Representative George Miller, Democrat of California, carries his inquiries into education policy-making beyond the Education Department itself and into the Bush White House.

“The committee’s ongoing investigations into both programs have revealed serious oversight failures by senior officials,” Mr. Miller’s office said in a statement.

The White House communications sought include those from Margaret Spellings, the current education secretary, who previously served as President Bush’s domestic policy adviser. Ms. Spellings is to testify on both programs next week before Mr. Miller’s committee.

Emily Lawrimore, a presidential spokeswoman, said that the White House had received the congressman’s request and that “we will review it and respond accordingly.”

more:http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/02/washington/02loan.html?ref=washington