1115.org

By the time investigators are done investigating everything, it may well turn out that, in the time of Bush, there was a corrupt elected Republican or a corrupt political appointee at the heart of every government department, program or initiative.

The latest such person to demonstrate that he saw no reason why he shouldn’t be on the gravy train too is Christopher J. Doherty:

The Justice Department is conducting a probe of a $6 billion reading initiative at the center of President Bush’s No Child Left Behind law, another blow to a program besieged by allegations of financial conflicts of interest and cronyism, people familiar with the matter said yesterday.

The disclosure came as a congressional hearing revealed how people implementing the $1 billion-a-year Reading First program made at least $1 million off textbooks and tests toward which the federal government steered states.
[...]
The Education Department’s inspector general, John P. Higgins Jr., said he has made several referrals to the Justice Department about the five-year-old program, which provides grants to improve reading for children in kindergarten through third grade.

Higgins declined to offer more specifics, but Christopher J. Doherty, former director of Reading First, said in an interview that he was questioned by Justice officials in November. The civil division of the U.S. attorney’s office for the District, which can bring criminal charges, is reviewing the matter.

Doherty, one of the two Education Department employees who oversaw the initiative, acknowledged yesterday that his wife had worked for a decade as a paid consultant for a reading program, Direct Instruction, that investigators said he improperly tried to force schools to use. He repeatedly failed to disclose the conflict on financial disclosure forms.

“I’m very proud of this program and my role in this program,” Doherty said in the interview.

Yes, you would be. That’s the way any loyal Bushie would feel. Just doing your duty really, weren’t you?

I’m sure someone somewhere is investigating — or planning to — whether guys like Doherty got to keep all their ill-gotten gains, or whether they were required to funnel some of them back to party coffers or officials.

Meanwhile, there’s this to chew on:

Education Secretary Margaret Spellings, who declined to comment yesterday, has said management problems with Reading First “reflect individual mistakes.” But Doherty said nearly every aspect of the program was carefully monitored by the department and the White House, where Spelling was Bush’s top education adviser.

“This program was always firmly under the watch and control of the highest levels of the government,” Doherty said.