“Alex Pareene” - Michelle Rhee hires Democrat, continues working with Republicans
June 6, 2011
http://www.salon.com/life/education/index.html
Michelle Rhee has a very well-connected and talented new employee: Hari Sevugan, formerly the spokesman for the Democratic National Committee, is now the top flack for Students First, the school reform nonprofit founded and run by the former Washington DC schools chancellor. This, Ben Smith reported over the weekend, will help Rhee remind everyone that she is a Democrat:
But while Sevugan's role includes setting up a rapid response operation and press shop for a group that didn't have a full-fledged communications operation, the move also sends a political signal: Michelle Rhee's push to weaken the hold of teachers unions has won her enemies in the labor movement and among some Democrats, and allies on the Republican right, and Sevugan will aim to clarify her attempt to establish a bipartisan profile, the source said; he has already begun to reach out to some of the group's progressive critics.
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. Which, Ben Smith also reports, she is still doing. Rhee joined with former Senator Bill Frist to endorse legislation designed to -- three guesses! -- limit the collective bargaining powers of Tennessee teachers. The bill also bars the teachers union from making campaign contributions or lobbying state legislators. Once only the Kochs and the Gates Foundation have any say in public policy, our children will finally win the future.