Education Chief Appears on The Colbert Report

Margaret Spellings, the nation's education czar, made an appearance Tuesday night on The Colbert Report, a comedy show on cable TV known for its sarcastic bite.

"Why can't we leave some children behind?" asks host Stephen Colbert, in a less-than earnest attack of the Bush administration's No Child Left Behind policy. "You know they're going to leave us behind right? They're going off to this place called the future that we're not invited to! They're trying to replace us!"

Spellings may be the least camera shy of President Bush's cabinet, having appeared on The Daily Show With Jon Stewart last year and as a (losing) contestant on Jeopardy in 2006.

This time around, Spellings comes out relatively unscathed. Colbert suggests implementing federally mandated spanking, which Spellings pretends to consider, and he complements her on her TedStrong wrist bracelet, which gives her a politically-correct opening to talk about her support for Ted Kennedy. Too cynical?