About 24 hours after David Axelrod, spin master supreme, publicly predicted in the Sun-Times that his old pal Mayor Rahm Emanuel was too loyal to ever—and I mean, ever—sack his other good buddy, Chicago Public Schools CEO Forrest Claypool, down came the boom.
Of course, there was no need for Rahm to fear Claypool, who’s been a loyal factotum for years. One of my favorite revelations from the trial of former governor Rod Blagojevich was the taped 2008 conversation in which Emanuel, who was leaving Congress to work as President Obama’s chief of staff, asked Blago to fill the vacancy with Claypool. Rahm wanted to return to his old seat after a year or two, at which point Claypool would apparently step down. “Forrest Claypool, bizarrely, would like to be considered,” Emanuel told Blago in a conversation that federal investigators were secretly taping. Rahm concluded the conversation by assuring Blago he would “not forget this” favor. (Blago didn’t actually have the authority to fill a congressional vacancy, so the deal never happened.) Now Emanuel wouldn’t be caught dead mentioning the ex-governor’s name. Guess we can add Blago’s name to Rahm’s disloyalty list.
The mayor didn’t mention the closings at Claypool’s send-off. But the reality is that it’s hard enough having a white guy at the helm of the system when you’re shuttering schools in black neighborhoods. It’s even harder when the white guy’s credibility is under siege after he was caught lying to the inspector general.
