Emanuel Cleaver
Nor is Cleaver doing anything to discourage the noise. He seems, in fact, perhaps to enjoy it. His post as Senior Pastor of St. James United Methodist Church can not fully engage him at this stage of his career. Indeed, he did the job on the side when he served as Kansas City mayor from 1991-1999.
If the attention is nice, the job would be something of a challenge. Still, Cleaver might prove to be the right man for the job, at least in the short haul. After all, his strengths as mayor were his ability to inspire and to unite. And Lord knows the District could now use heaping doses of both inspiration and unity.
More interesting is Cleaver's ability to deal with to the inner city patronage machine that got him elected in the first place but that deviled him for the rest of his tenure. Indeed, a few years back George Magazine named Kansas City one of America's ten most corrupt cities, and it was this same machine that netted us our dubious rating.
Like the proverbial "Nixon in China," Cleaver has the potential to confront this apparatus without the charges of racism or grandstanding that would undermine the efforts of just about anyone else. A successful confrontation would also give Cleaver the opportunity to straighten out the District and redress the one stain on an otherwise admirable record.
Insiders say Cleaver has no great gift for organization. Once righted, he would probably want to find a nuts and bolts person to steer the District on its quotidian course. But for that interim year or two, the Mayor could surely rev things up
FLASH! This just in.
Kansas City School Board votes 8-1 to negotiate 14 month contracts with interim superintendent Bernard Taylor, pending judge's approval. Does this signal a return to stablility? Don't bet on it.