suntimes

Editorial: Rahm earns F for using f-word

Editorials September 13, 2011 1:34AM

Updated: November 9, 2011 4:11PM



It’s time for Rahm Emanuel to go up to the chalkboard and write 100 times:

“I will not go around saying
‘f--- you’ to people I hardly even know.”

Maybe that sort of thing was OK when Rahm was chief of staff in the White House and didn’t have to set a public example.

But saying “F--- you, Lewis” to Karen Lewis, president of the Chicago Teachers Union, in a debate over a longer day for Chicago Public Schools?

Our mayor must think he’s living in a David Mamet play.

Lewis told the Sun-Times on Friday that the mayor used the impermissible imprecation when he “exploded” at her during a conversation in his office.

The mayor isn’t denying it.

We generally agree with Emanuel’s push for a longer school day.

But there’s not a reason in the world the mayor can’t make his point in a civil manner.

Tough is one thing. Coarse, crude and rude is quite another.

If Emanuel keeps this up, Lewis might make him stay after class — and he’ll learn just how miserable a longer school day can be.

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