Christine Quinn Is Pretty Sure It's OK to Cut Class

In a fairly amazing show of desperation, serial opportunist Christine Quinn is offering students excuse notes if they take off to work for her campaign. I've never heard of such a thing, and I've never seen a note from a politician saying Johny was absent because he was volunteering for a campaign. You certainly never saw that sort of thing from Emperor Mike, who could simply pull another million from his vest pocket and pay someone.

Here's what Quinn's staffer said:

“If you want me to be real for a second, a letter coming from the next mayor of New York City saying that you helped her on election day is something you can definitely put on your resume or application, and I’m pretty sure your teacher will be ok with you missing Tuesday, or even Monday and Tuesday,” he wrote.

I like that he says he's being real for a second. This gives us an enormous clue about what the Quinn team does the rest of the time. Perhaps their primary focus is ignoring polls that suggest Quinn's chances are something short of a sure thing.

Personally, I'd find this beyond the pale on the standard chutzpah scale but for several other factors--the year of Carlos Danger, for one. Perhaps Quinn's clueless minion is emboldened by the fact one of her opponents is comfortable sexting with teenagers. And yet, Quinn herself was instrumental in enabling the Emperor's third term, despite a twice-taken popular vote against it. Of course this gave Quinn a third term as well.

Clearly Quinn's priority is her own political future at any cost. Now I wouldn't disown my daughter if she made the horrifying decision to volunteer for a self-serving, corporatist, two-faced, boot-licking, megalomaniacal political hack. But I sure as hell wouldn't allow her to miss a day of school to do so either. I suspect many parents feel the same way. What if the politician were a decent person?

I gotta think a decent politician would refrain from asking high school students to miss school.