Photo used under a Creative Commons license
with angela n.

Just because you can say it, doesn’t mean you should. That’s a lesson that D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee might want to take to heart.

But one day after Mayor Adrian Fenty lost his bid for re-election and Democratic nominee Vince Gray announced that he had put in a call to Rhee and was looking forward to sitting down with her, Rhee called the results of the primary “devastating.” According to the Post’s Bill Turque, Rhee, who attended the opening of the documentary Waiting for Superman (which features her as something of a savior figure for D.C. schools), stated, “Yesterday’s election results were devastating, devastating. Not for me, because I’ll be fine, and not even for Fenty because he’ll be fine, but devastating for the schoolchildren of Washington, D.C.”

Whether or not you think Gray should or will choose to retain her or not, Rhee isn’t making it easy for him to do so. Gray will surely face pressure from the coalition that helped usher him to victory, and many of his supporters, including the teacher’s union, will likely want Rhee gone. But Gray is the presumptive mayor-elect: he could put his foot down and opt to retain Rhee, if he chooses. That being said, the more Rhee says things like this — which, at the end of the day, seem to indict anyone who voted for Gray — the more political capital Gray will have to spend to keep her on.