Much Ado About Law School
There’s an intense blog-spat going on today between SoundPolitics and Horsesass over the academic history of eastside Democrat Darcy Burner.
As a highly interested observer, I’d say David Goldstein at Horsesass has done a pretty good job of smacking down the hyperventilating Stefan Shrakansky over at SoundPolitics. But now it looks like I’m being drawn into this fight, all because of one sentence in this profile of Burner that I wrote for The Stranger.
From: Stefan SharkanskyDate: Thu, 06 Apr 2006 11:13:37 -0700
To: Eli Sanders
Subject: just curious
Eli,I know you’re a huge Darcy Burner fan, but I’m curious. In your “FIGHTING MOOD” article last month you wrote:
18 months ago, she decided it was time to pursue her interest in politics and retired from Microsoft in order to focus on a run for Congress.Did she tell you that she was going to UW Law School?
cheers
Stefan
I fail to understand why Burner’s law school attendance is a big deal, other than the fact that her alleged failure to finish law school before running for Congress (if it’s in fact true) could be rolled into the current Republican attack-meme that casts Burner as a lightweight.
Sharkansky is suggesting that Burner intentionally hid her law school years from me and others, but the truth, Stefan, is that law school never came up when I was talking to Burner and her campaign staff for my story.
Why did it never come up? If you think Burner’s alleged law school experience would be something for a person to be ashamed of, I can see how you would come up with a storyline that has her hiding this experience from the public. But in reality, there’s no shortage of successful politicians with unusual academic records (see, for example, Greg Nickels, who dropped out of college to pursue politics, or our current president, for that matter). And because of this, I doubt Burner’s been keeping her law school records in a campaign file marked TOP SECRET, dreading the day when someone like Sharkansky would begin looking into this part of her past.
It seems more likely to me that law school never came up because Burner (whose resume already includes Harvard and Microsoft) didn’t want to do exactly what Sharkansky accuses her of doing in another context: inflate her resume.
Smart, talented, accomplished people don’t brag about things they haven’t yet finished, Stefan. That’s not evidence of a cover-up. It’s evidence of confidence in one’s other accomplishments, and plain old social skills.
But I’ve sent an email to Burner’s campaign requesting clarification on all of this, and will let you know when I get an answer.
Okay Eli,
I am sure there are plenty of Stranger readers who are microsoft employees who can clarify that a program manager is not an Executive at Microsoft.
As Darcy has fraudlulently inflated this part of her resume, why don't you discuss exectly what an executive at Microsoft is defined as... or does that contradict the blind support you are throwing towards Darcy?