It is only once in a rare blue moon that we get news like this. The irony is almost palpable. Detractors jump up and down with glee. Latent metaphors abound. It’s simply... beautiful.

What has me roaring with laughter before lunch?

The funders of Ed in ‘08, also known as Strong American Schools, are cuttin’ the dough. Oh yes, that’s right, the Gates and Broad Foundations have decided Ed in ‘08 is kaput!

But with Nov. 4 looming, education appears to have relatively low visibility. And the Gates and Broad family foundations have stopped contributing to the [Ed in ‘08] campaign after putting in a total of about $24 million.

I hate to say “we told you so,” (actually, I have no problem saying this at all) but really, we did. And if killing the initiative wasn’t enough, the excuses are PRICELESS.

“If we spend less than the maximum, it is because it is a reflection of the strategies we are executing,” said Marie Groark, senior program officer with the Gates Foundation. She acknowledged that it’s a tough environment for the issue to gain traction. “We are aware that there are significant competing priorities on the agenda,” she said.

This is just too good. “[T]he strategies we are excuting”? That’s corporate mumbo-jumbo if I’ve ever heard it. And “significant competing priorities,” huh? You mean like the fiscal crisis, the two front war, the multiple hurricanes and the blossoming deficit? Those priorities?

Or this,

For its part, the education campaign, branded “Ed in ‘08,” says it has been successful in steering the direction of the presidential dialogue toward education - if only temporarily - and that the Republican and Democratic nominees have cited its policy positions, particularly in recent weeks.

“Policy positions”? What policy positions??! As the wise and venerable Judge Judy once said, “Don’t piss on my leg and tell me it’s raining.”

Well, folks, what’s the lesson to be learned here? Fordham knows what they’re talking about, fo’ serious. 

(Thanks to Alyson Klein for brightening my morning.)