Education Secretary Goes On 'Jeopardy'

Margaret Spellings Studied & Came In 2nd In Contest With 2 Actors

(AP)  Education Secretary Margaret Spellings says she studied hard to prepare for Tuesday night's airing of "Celebrity Jeopardy!"

"I didn't want to be the Education Secretary who didn't know how to spell potato," Spellings joked, describing how she read books and sought advice from a former show contender and her daughters.

In the end, Spellings said she thinks the effort was worth it. She came in second behind the actor Michael McKean, best known for his role as 'Lenny' on the television show "Laverne and Shirley" and for the movie "This Is Spinal Tap."

Placing third was actor Hill Harper, from the television show "CSI: NY."

"I think I held my own," Spellings said in an interview Tuesday, hours before the show aired. She noted McKean had an edge, having been on the show before.

Spellings was the first Cabinet secretary ever to appear on the popular quiz show. She said she'd like to return for another try.

She said she didn't realize how much skill went into hitting the buzzer at just the right moment after host Alex Trebek read a clue. She said she often hit it too early and as a result didn't get picked to tackle a category.

Spellings' strong subjects included international language and business.

She was asked to appear after the show's producer read a magazine article in which Spellings said she was a "Jeopardy!" fan.

Each celebrity earns at least $25,000 for the charity of his or her choice, and the winner gets $50,000 for a charity.

Spellings' winnings from the show, taped in New York last month, went to ProLiteracy Worldwide - an international literacy organization.

Trebek said "Jeopardy!" picked the charity for Spellings to comply with government ethics rules.

[snowbrd7]

Brave woman. Good for her.

[lardheppus]

I doubt if your list will clog CBS's servers. Give it a try.

Make sure the list includes:

Iraq, Tony Blair is now calling that a disaster.

Afghanistan, the UN chief there thinks it's unwinnable.

Katrina, the relief effort was almost as much of a disaster as the original disaster.

The trade deficit, setting a new record, at least the US is still #1 in something.

The federal deficit, another new record. At least Bush isn't an underacheiver when it comes to bankrupting the country.

Bush sure is doing a "heckuva job". Let's hope the country can survive another two years of Bush's "accomplishments".

I have no doubt that the Jeopardy show was rigged. Alex Trebek is Canadian, and FRENCH-Canadian at that. We all know what that means.

[petesfeats]

Appropriate nick ya got there, wacko. So, it's all a big liberal conspiracy, eh? Couldn't be yet another example of Bush appointing incompetent fools to important positions, right?

Her performance was an embarrassment. My 8 yo old could have held her own with Spellings. She is yet another embarrassment for the most incompetent administration in history.

As to your list of Bush successes, in light of Iraq, Katrina, Osama, Mission Accomplished and dozens of other total failures of both foreign and domestic policy, I'd like to see it. I seriously doubt the list is so long as to, um, overwhelm the server of a site that gets millions and millions of hits per day.

Perhaps you can also explain why so large a majority of Americans gives Bush some of the lowest approval rating of any president, ever and why the GOP was so roundly trounced in the midterms. Just another liberal conspiracy, is it?

[lonewackodot]

This was just an exercise in trivia, and America's beloved Education Secretary (tinyurl.com/y33w5s) has shown time and time again that she has the real-world experience and skills that Michael McKean would have difficulty with. Let's see him try to be Education Secretary! Furthermore, the questions were slanted against her and in his favor. What's more, there may have been selective editing involved here in order to make her look bad. I would include herein a long list of the Bush administration's other accomplishments and massive successes, but the list would be too long and would overwhelm this site's server, so I won't. But, trust me, there is such a list.