Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich drew strong criticism from Detroit city leaders and school officials Monday after calling the city a “disaster” in a national network TV interview on Sunday.

Gingrich blasted the city of Detroit, Detroit Public Schools, the United Auto Workers and Michigan’s unemployment rate during an interview on Fox News Sunday in which he talked about how he would transform Washington.

A spokesman for Gingrich, an undeclared Republican presidential candidate who has been ramping up his public appearances, singled out Detroit and its schools because they’re the “best worst-case example” of bureaucracy and “a union structure that doesn’t work.”

“We should basically, fundamentally replace the Detroit school system with a series of experiments to see if they’ll work,” Gingrich said in the interview.

Rick Tyler, Gingrich’s spokesman, said Monday that unions are to blame for many of the city’s and state’s woes, including the inability of the Big Three automakers to be competitive and the school system’s struggle to reform itself. Gingrich also cited Detroit’s massive population losses.

“Detroit is routinely pointed out as one of the worst public school systems in the entire country,” Tyler said. “It provides the best example of why we need transformational change in bureaucratic systems that don’t work.”

Detroit News

So naturally, the City, the school district, and the unions are all having a hissy.  I am not certain why.  Newt didn’t say anything that wasn’t true.

Chief Justice John Roberts walked out of a hospital in Maine Tuesday, released a day after he suffered a seizure. The White House said he told President Bush he was doing fine.

Roberts strode briskly out of the Penobscot Bay Medical Center in Rockport, Maine, wearing a blue sport coat, open collar shirt and slacks. He waved to onlookers before getting into a waiting sports utility vehicle.

The chief justice, 52, plans to continue his summer vacation, Supreme Court spokeswoman Kathy Arberg said. She said that doctors found no cause for concern after evaluating Roberts.

Roberts was hospitalized after he fell on a dock near his summer home on Hupper Island, near Port Clyde, Maine. He had a prior unexplained seizure in 1993. Bush had called Roberts earlier Tuesday, and press secretary Tony Snow said that the president was assured the chief justice was doing well.

Breitbart

Roberts had a bit of a scare yesterday, but apparently he is doing fine. Thank God.