Democratic activist/Hollywood producer Lawrence O'Donnell is serious about public education -- especially at his daughter's elite school -- as Dennis Miller and CNBC viewers recently learned.
Mr. O'Donnell was a guest on Mr. Miller's cable-TV talk show last week, discussing the political feud between California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the state's teachers unions.
Mr. O'Donnell, producer of NBC's "West Wing," said Mr. Schwarzenegger's poll numbers were sagging "because of public school parents like me."
"Every single teacher my daughter has had has been a great teacher," he said.
"You're delusional," retorted Catherine Seipp, a California resident and National Review contributor, who also was a guest on the show.
At that, Mr. O'Donnell's temper flared and he began shouting at Ms. Seipp, who was seated next to him. "I've met them all. I know my daughter's teachers. Don't you tell me that they're not great. They're great."
Mr. Miller joked: "Listen, if a teacher raised their voice against your kid in a California public school like you just did with Cathy, you'd protest, right?" Mr. O'Donnell responded with more ranting: "She's never met my kid's teachers. ... For her to tell me about the teachers at the Canyon Charter School without ever having met them, that they're not great ...
"Every one of them, yes. From kindergarten to fifth grade. Every single one of them. They're better than you will ever imagine."
Canyon Charter School is in Santa Monica, Calif. (ZIP code 90402), where the Census Bureau reports that the median family income is $174,183 (more than three times the national average), the median home value is more than $1 million and less than 1 percent of the population is black.
While Mr. O'Donnell shouted the virtues of Canyon Charter teachers, his "neck veins really began throbbing, the eyes began bulging and the teeth, like an offended dog's, actually seemed to increase in number and size," Ms. Seipp writes on her blog (cathyseipp.journalspace.com). |
