Michelle Davis' Education Next profile of Secretary Margaret Spellings seems to suggest Sec. Spellings doesn't have much respect for the brainpower of people on either side of the political spectrum. 

Davis, going with the conventional wisdom, characterizes two of Spellings' actions as political strategems.

No. 1:  Push vouchers hard at the negotiating table so you can dump them later to get other things. 

"But talking the talk on vouchers could come in handy: the administration gets credit from choice groups for pushing them, and giving them up allows Democrats to feel as though they’ve scored a win."

It's hard to believe a Congressional Democrat would really say, "Hey, we fought back vouchers, which didn't even pass when Republicans were in the majority.  Let's give away the store and let Margaret go ahead and do whatever she wants with education policy."

It's equally hard to believe a pro-voucher conservative would really say, "Good ol' Margaret, she did her darnedest for vouchers.  Let's give her some points." That's hardly the line taken by Clint Bolick, who's quoted in the article.

No. 2:  Attack lesbian-friendly cartoon bunnies to appease conservatives.

"Her outrage over the Buster affair may have led conservatives to give her the benefit of the doubt as she went about enforcing a law that reached far into states’ education territory."

I have trouble imagining a conservative saying, "Thanks for going after  that fictional character the way Dan Quayle went after Murphy Brown.  Now go ahead and do whatever you want with education policy."

The truth is that Sec. Spellings is too smart to think that her bunny attack means anything to conservatives now or that she can use vouchers, a nonstarter, to get concessions in other areas. And Congressional Democrats, now in the majority, are WAY TOO SMART to cave on anything because of the false threat of more vouchers.