Rick Snyder (R-MI): One of Rhee's co-conspirators
Former DC Schools Chancellor and "education reform" advocate Michelle Rhee has been a busy bee as of late. Undeterred by the looming scandal that could derail much of the mythology surrounding her tenure in the DC schools, Rhee has been a ubiquitous presence in state legislatures around the country, and a constant companion at the side of ed-minded Governors from coast to coast.
The common thread? They are virtually all Republicans, as Valerie Strauss at the Washington Post explains:
While investigators in the District are trying to determine how much cheating there was on standardized tests while Michelle Rhee ran the city’s public school system (and there are reasons to worry it was widespread), the former chancellor has been busy joining with Republican governors to strip teachers of their collective bargaining rights.
Rhee was appointed chancellor of D.C. schools in 2007 by Democratic mayor Adrian Fenty, and she just hired Hari Sevugan, former spokesman for the Democratic National Committee, to be the chief spokesman for her StudentsFirst organization.
But her post-D.C. life — which began in October when she quit because Fenty lost in a primary -- has been aligned with very conservative governors who are going after labor.
Rhee's penchant for parroting right-wing talking points on education, insulated by a self-promoted mythology of her educational successes, has been well documented.
What has become exceptionally notable, as of late, is how in-demand Rhee remains, despite the stain on her reputation from the revelations out of DC. What is equally notable is the fact that those who are demanding her validation hail almost uniformly from a single party, the opposite party from the one in which she claims membership. This year alone, she has done time stumping for the anti-union efforts of over a half-dozen Republican Governors or state legislatures.
Most notably, in the past week, was her involvement in the effort in Tennessee to destroy the right to collective bargaining for Volunteer State teachers. In so doing, she co-authored an op-ed with none other than former GOP Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist.
Rhee, understandably, is cognizant of running the risk of being pigeonholed as a spokesman for the right-wing on the issue of education. Her entire stock in trade, as Tim Pawlenty acknowledged earlier in the year, is the credibility that comes with right-wing talking points coming out of the mouth of a Democrat.
So, to shore up her Democratic bonafides, she snagged the DNC's national spokesman, Hari Sevugan, as the communications guru for Students First, her "reform" organization. Ben Smith's source on the story (and read the source's comment in full, it is hilarious) characterized Sevugan's hire as a way to restore "the reputation of the group back to a non-partisan place after being seen, undeservedly, as overly friendly with Republicans."
Undeservedly? Heh. Salon's Alex Pareene characterizes it differently, and accurately:
Strategic communications operations are what the powerful turn to when they really don't want to stop doing the things that keep getting them bad press. In Rhee's case, one of those things that's making her so unpopular among erstwhile and potential allies is her recent habit of working extensively with Republican politicians.
Rather than seeking common cause with teachers and their professional organizations, it is beyond obvious that Rhee wants to keep on with the teacher-bashing and the union-bashing, but wants Sevugan to work his magic to try to give bipartisan imprimatur to union-bashing.
Indeed, in one of his first tweets after the news broke, Sevugan threw this whopper out: "SF shouldn't be about being pro or anti union."
Of course, given his boss' career of actively avoiding collaboration or consensus with unions, Sevugan is going to have his work cut out for him trying to sell that one.
