Washington Post columnist Robert McCartney does a nice job of summarizing the fantastically incoherent case against Michelle Rhee:

The future of the District’s school system may well be decided by whether Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee’s forceful reform campaign becomes mired in a swamp of her own self-defeating hubris. A lively, dramatic D.C. Council hearing Thursday illustrated again the need for Rhee to temper her autocratic approach, especially by communicating and collaborating better with the body that approves her budget. On balance, I think she’ll continue to move forward despite the emergence of potential legal problems. Her admirable, ambitious efforts are showing results in the form of higher test scores, spruced-up buildings and stabilized enrollment. However, part of any schools chief’s job is dealing effectively with the city’s elected representatives, and there, Rhee is coming up short.

In other words, since taking office, Michelle Rhee has done two things, both to extents that far exceed her predecessors: 1) Improve the school system. 2) Make the DC City Council very angry.  Incredibly, it seems not to have occurred to McCartney and other members of the “Yes, education is improving, but…” crowd that both (1) and (2) are a function of the very same set of reforms. Instead, Rhee’s work to tame the central office, shut down under-enrolled schools, and replace low-performing principals and teachers is somehow seen as independent from her poor relations with city council members with political ties to the bureaucracy and the teachers union. It’s all about her “hubris” and “bedside manner.” This is as insulting to Rhee’s opponents as it is to the intelligence of Post readers. Does anyone believe that Randi Weingarten is going to be charmed into making contract concessions? Susceptibility to smooth-talking management leaders doesn’t get you the presidency of a national labor union. Or that more phone calls from Michelle Rhee is going to change the fact that DC Council Chairman Vincent Gray wants to be mayor and Rhee’s boss, Adrian Fenty, is standing in his way?

Sometimes interests conflict, and that usually leads to, well, conflict. The case for Rhee’s interests is increasingly being made in terms of rising state and national test scores, improved special education, renewed facilities, and more. What, other than vague complaints about disrespect and the bizarre notion that it’s possible to fix the worst school district in America without making people angry, supports the interests of the other side?