Could Hayes be ‘madam secretary’ some day?
WASHINGTON — In the Democratic debate Thursday night, the contenders devoted a surprising amount of time to education. Each tried to oneup the competition on devotion to the teaching profession: Valuing teachers, upgrading their profile, respect them as we do soldiers and pay them like doctors.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, DMass., offered this pledge: If elected president, she would appoint someone with experience as a public school teacher to be secretary of education.
Could that be Rep. Jahana Hayes? After all, the former John F. Kennedy High School (in Waterbury) teacher has a long resume of classroom work. And, in case you’ve been hibernating the past three years, Hayes won the coveted Teacher of the Year award in 2016.
Hayes launched her political career on the good vibes yielded from that experience, which included an award ceremony with then President Barack Obama at the White House. Now in her first term in the House seat formerly occupied by Elizabeth Esty, Hayes is a member of the Education & Labor Committee.
She certainly brings a level of classroom toughness to the committee’s hearings, crossing swords with the current Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos, as though she were a teacher upbraiding an evasive student.
Of course, it’s not as if she’s the only one in Congress with education credentials. A Congressional Research Service report found there are 85 House members who were teachers, professors, instructors, school fundraisers, counselors, administrators, or coaches. And education trade publications report 100 former teachers made it past the primaries to become candidates for office in 2018.
But the Hayes backstory — raised in the Waterbury projects, a mother at 17, putting herself through college and becoming a teacher _— is certainly compelling enough to attract any Democratic candidate’s attention. (Granted, they’d have to win in 2020, which is not a slam dunk by any means.)
Would Hayes ever want the job?
No comment yet from Rep. Hayes. Sam Dorn, her spokesman, said she was tied up with Congressional Black Caucus business.
Murphy arrives in Ukraine
In normal times, congressionaldelegation trips overseas are staid affairs — lots of glassclinking, pledges of continued friendship and international cooperation. Sometimes there’s a “frank exchange of views,” but even those don’t usually do much to interrupt the sense of diplomatic esprit de corps.
But on his “CoDel” trip to Eastern Europe with Sen. Ron Johnson, RWisc., Sen. Chris Murphy found himself in the midst of some genuine international intrigue in Ukraine.
Not quite James Bond or the Bourne series, but it was nonetheless notable as a foray into foiling transnational skullduggery.
The delegation arrived in Kiev in the midst of curious delays in a Trump administration militaryaid package. Administration officials attributed it to glitches but the deeper, darker reason is Trump dissatisfaction over the Ukraine regime’s alleged support of Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election, and pressure from Trump lawyer and emissary Rudy Giuliani to dig up dirt on activities of Democratic 2020 contender Joe Biden in Ukraine.
Of course, allegations of Trump sacrificing international relations on the altar of electoral politics are nothing new. The proWestern Ukraine government is at odds with Russian President Vladimir Putin, often cited as a notsohidden Trump benefactor. And Russia denied a visa to Murphy on this trip.
Murphy told reporters earlier this week that while in Kiev, he brought l’affaire Giuliani up with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Murphy said he “made the point that if the Ukrainian government gets requests from the Embassy, that’s different than getting requests from a political actor in the United States.
To maintain appropriate diplomatic boundaries between the two governments, Murphy said he told Zelensky “it was much better for the president to rebuff any pressure he's getting from political campaigns in the United States to conduct investigations.”
Zelensky, according to Murphy, “wasn't surprised that I brought it up… his response was pretty simple: that they have no intention of getting involved in an American election.”
Late Thursday, the Trump administration lifted the gate and let the military aid to Ukraine flow.
That certainly let Murphy off the hook. At least he no longer has to worry about learning intelworld techniques —like shaking off a tail or throwing his car into a spin by jamming on the brakes and wrenching the wheel. (For a treat, check out exCIA operative Valerie Plame’s social media video, which suggests her “Fast & Furious” driving skills in part qualify her for a seat in Congress.)