Wednesday Morning Rant

One of the great benefits of being an American politician is that, for most of them, failure is impossible. Unless you really annoy the Party or become simply too big of an embarrassment (a line that is nearly impossible to cross now in the Biden era), you're set for life the moment you walk into any significant office. You can rest easy that you will probably be able to comfortably coast to reelection and line your pockets along the way.

Sometimes, however, there is a rare exception where an American politician is removed from office but remains inside. When this happens, the politician becomes a private citizen but the Party wants him or her to know that there are no hard feelings. When the odd removal occurs but it really was "just business," the Party offers up a consolation prize. Within a year, you'll see a little story about the now former politician's "next chapter," usually as an author or a speaker.

In a story that flew under the RADAR earlier this year, it was reported that one of America's stupidest, creepiest, most belligerent and most tyrannical former politicians has gotten her consolation prize. Chicago's Lori Lightfoot is spending this term as a university lecturer. For graduate students. At Hamasvard. Lightfoot is now the Richard L. and Ronay A. Menschel Senior Leadership Fellow at Harvard's T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

What is the brilliant and successful Lightfoot teaching? What she knows:

Former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot .. will teach a course tentatively titled "Health Policy and Leadership," drawing heavily on her experiences steering the city through the COVID-19 pandemic and grappling with health equity issues.

But why Lightfoot? The real answer, of course, is that the Party is doing her a favor as a reward for her loyal service and for doing yeoman's work destroying one of America's great cities. Officially, though, it's because Lightfoot is decisive leader:

"We believe our students will benefit from her experiences, insights and knowledge of leadership decision-making," he said.

Previous Menschel fellows have included former mayors and governors. Last year, former New York Mayor Bill de Blasio and former Boston Mayor Kim Janey were fellows.

Lightfoot said she'll use a mock press conference, a simulated community meeting and guest speakers to teach in part about the dangers of politicizing a pandemic and how to interact with the media, drawing on lessons learned from running a city amid COVID-19.

So Lightfoot got her consolation prize, the Party equivalent of a gold watch at retirement. I am left with just one question: is Harvard degraded by associating with Lightfoot, or is Lightfoot degraded by associating with Harvard?

posted by Joe Mannix at 11:00 AM

| Access Comments