The local chattering classes are buzzing with speculation about which D.C. politicians might wind up working in the Barack Obama administration.
The hot name this week is Michelle Rhee. The chancellor of the D.C. Public Schools has been hitting the national media like Britney Spears announcing another rehab visit. She has been profiled by The Atlantic, Newsweek and CBS news.
Rhee speaks all over town and wows her audiences with her valiant struggle to reform D.C.’s woeful schools. She has cornered the teachers union with a proposal to accept a form of merit pay or face loss of seniority — or both.
Rhee has made education reform kind of sexy.
So people ask me: Is it true Michelle Rhee is leaving her job to become Obama’s education secretary?
The incoming president could not find a more reformist, articulate and energetic candidate. Did I add controversial? If Obama brought Rhee within a few blocks of the White House, labor leaders would rebel. Rhee’s crusade to improve teaching in D.C. by rewarding good teachers and firing lousy ones may seem like a great idea to parents of D.C. students, like me, but merit pay strikes at the essential dogma of teachers unions. It’s a deal-breaker.
What about Adrian Fenty? You will find plenty of political observers who are convinced our young mayor has his gaze fixed on the White House and has picked out the drapes in his Cabinet office. Their reasoning is Fenty is relentlessly ambitious, looks like the incoming president and campaigned early for Obama.
My reading is Fenty is committed to being mayor and loves his job. The guy is two years into his first term, and he has already filed papers and started raising money for his second campaign.
I also believe Rhee and Fenty see themselves as a dynamic duo joined at the right moment in history to reform the city’s public schools. She is halfway through her first school year. She knows she has his total support. Whether you like her methods or not, she’s committed, as is the mayor.
What amazes me is that no one mentions the most logical local politician fit for executive office. That would be congressional Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton. She came out early and unequivocally for Obama. Norton and the president-elect have a long-standing political and personal relationship.
Moreover, Norton has worked on the White House side. Jimmy Carter appointed her to become the first female chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. She’s already been mentioned as a possible secretary of housing or transportation for Obama.
Would Norton be interested in giving up her House seat?
“Absolutely not,” she told me. Like Fenty, Norton loves her job, is dedicated to the city of her birth and does not see a Cabinet job as a move up.
My calculations are that no locals are interested in working in an Obama administration. But if the president does call, all bets are off.
