Duncan's spinning wheel stuck

Cunningham's gone.  Hamilton's gone. Who's left at the DOE to hold Arne Duncan's hand? Daren Briscoe?

Duncan buys in to the Bush model

Somebody needs to step in and help Arne move beyond his rat-a-tat-tat speed rapping and engage in some serious media discussion. After keynoting Jeb Bush's D.C. ed summit, along with a gaggle of other T-Party'ers, privatizers, "parent-trigger" pullers, and charter and voucher pushers like Mitch Daniels,  Condi Rice and Rupert Murdoch flack, Joel Klein, Duncan refused to answer any questions from the media. VaPo's Valerie Strauss offers some possible reasons why, straight out of the Onion.

Maybe without Cunningham or Hamilton to feed Duncan his lines, Obama's folks are afraid of being embarrassed when the obvious question is asked: Why have current administration ed policies found such a comfortable home among the Bush neo-cons when they can't get the time of day from teachers, labor and civil rights groups, parents and community-based organizations?

Or how about: Do you agree with Jeb Bush that public-sector unions should be banned?

Diane Ravitch says:

"Just think of it as a testament to bipartisan comity around a shared agenda."

Better yet is Charles Pierce at Esquire who writes:

"But the conference itself is worth noting because I think that it is the issue of education "reform," and not immigration, where the moderation mummery among Republicans is going to be more obvious. It's a better issue for them because they can bash unions, and there's nothing inherent in it to inflame The Base, which is why they can only go so far out of the Phantom Zone on immigration. Not only that, but a substantial portion of Democrats — most notably the Secretary of Education and the current Mayor of Chicago — have proven themselves quite willing to fall for the blandishments of long-con specialists like Michelle Rhee, so, glory be to god, bipartisanship!!!"

Peter, Justin, help!