Grapevine: Union Chief Apologizes to Duncan
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And now some fresh pickings from the Political Grapevine...
Apology Accepted
Education Secretary Arne Duncan has accepted an apology from the president of the Chicago teachers union -- for a joke she made at his expense.
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Karen Lewis was speaking last month at a conference in Seattle -- when she said this.
"This guy - who has the nerve to stand up and say education is a civil rights issue of our time - now you know he went to private school cause if he went to public school he'd a had that lisp fixed!"
She also joked about -- smoking lots of weed -- in college -- then added she shouldn't have said that -- because there were kids present.
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Today -- the teachers union blamed what it called right-wing -- anti-public education advocates -- for highlighting the speech.
Three’s Company
French president Nicolas Sarkozy and President Obama are trying to smooth things over with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
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The two were caught making disparaging remarks about the Israeli leader earlier this month.
Sarkozy wrote a condolence letter to Netanyahu following the death of his father-in-law -- pledging his friendship -- despite differing views on the Middle East.
President Obama also reportedly wrote a condolence letter -- but did not mention the incident.
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Tropic Thunder
Finally -- a man wearing a loin cloth and carrying a torch -- surprised Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during a photo op with a Hong Kong official in Hawaii over the weekend.
They did capture that. It is still unclear who the man was -- and why he was there.