Washington D.C. - American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten
and former CNN journalist Campbell Brown received an unexpected invitation today from President Barack Obama. At a press conference, Obama invited both women to the White House for “some
bagels and lox” (a nod to the fact that both women are Jews or have lived in
New York City we don’t know which). He expressed his hope that the “Bagel Summit” would "cool things off
between the two."
The women have been digitally feuding since Ms. Brown
charged, in a Wall Street Journal piece, that teacher unions allow sexual
predators to stay in the classroom.
Ms. Weingarten shot back that this was nonsense, citing both the language of
the UFT/NYC contract and the Fourth Amendment. The two then exchanged battling tweets for 48-hours. The Twitter war caught
the eye of some in the beltway, including Politico and the Washington Post. Thus bringing it to the president's attention.
“The fact that
it [the Twitter war] has garnered so much attention is a testimony to the fact
that this is a sensitive issue,” the President said. “They are both outstanding people who just, you know, lost
their goddamn minds." Asked to comment on the President’s words, Weingarten
said, “Well one of us is outstanding.”
The invitation has its critics. Michelle Rhee
suggested that the summit might have a negative impact on education reform. “Quite frankly, we don’t want union
leaders to be seen eating in public. It is not in our best interests that they be perceived as human.”
At last report, neither Campbell nor Weingarten had accepted the president's offer.
Reality Alert: Interested in how we came to write this? Read Sara Jaffe here.
Reality Alert: Interested in how we came to write this? Read Sara Jaffe here.
