The New Republic

DC Public Schools Commissioner Michelle Rhee is the closest thing the education world has to a celebrity. (Education Next recently photoshoped an image of Rhee in medieval armor, under the heading "DC's Braveheart") Her take-no-prisoners approach to education reform, sometimes at the expense of tenured teachers, has won her much attention nationally--and many enemies here in the District. READ MORE >>

Bernard Kerik, former New York City Policy Commissioner, Interim Interior Minister of Iraq, and nominee for Secretary of Homeland Security, will now be serving time in a Westchester County prison. READ MORE >>

Jeffrey Goldberg gets former FDA commissioner David Kessler's take on Corzine's fattist campaign strategy: READ MORE >>

Sometime soon, maybe this week,* the Senate Finance Committee is expected to vote on the health care reform bill it spent the last two weeks debating. Inside and outside the committee, people following this process more closely than I am say the bill is likely to pass. But it's not yet a sure thing. READ MORE >>

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Remember the Boston cop who wrote the racist email about Gates-gate? He's suing: He's demanding unspecified damages for his pain and suffering - and an end to efforts by Police Commissioner Ed Davis and Mayor Tom Menino to bounce him from the force, at least without a hearing. I guess there was no way this whole thing wouldn't produce at least one lawsuit. READ MORE >>

I’m fed up with the anguished deliberations about whether former Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick, who served 21 months in jail for promoting dog-fighting and killing, should be allowed to play pro football again. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell,  who has spent his adulthood as a pro football front office guy, is going to judge whether Vick is morally fit to put on a helmet and pads and risk life and limb before thousands of screaming fans. READ MORE >>

 "Some supporters of Israel," wrote Marlise Simons in yesterday's Times, "have called her an idiot." The "her" is Louise Arbour, the U.N. high commissioner for human right, who is leaving her post after four years.  But, as far as I recall, I have never called Arbour an idiot -- though I've been tempted. READ MORE >>

Of all the low points during the Bush administration, perhaps the most surreal was the week in December 2004 when Bernie Kerik was poised to become secretary of Homeland Security. By the traditional measures used to judge qualifications for this sort of job, Kerik was not an ideal candidate. The main points in Kerik's favor were his loyal service to Rudy Giuliani, first as driver for his mayoral campaign, then corrections commissioner, then police commissioner--the last of which was commemorated by the casting of30 Kerik busts. READ MORE >>

The DiTomasso brothers may not have much in common with George W. Bush, but there's one thing the president and the mob-linked contractors share: Both have reason to rue the day they met Bernard B. Kerik. READ MORE >>