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Walter's Perspective: Shame On Karen Lewis

CHICAGO (CBS) -- It's too early for the Oscars and Emmys, I know, but I already have a nomination for the worst performance of the year by a new star of stage and screen: the president of the Chicago Teachers Union, Karen Lewis.

At a conference in Seattle last month, she made fun of the lisping, a speech impediment, and of herself back in college

"I spent those years smoking lots of weed, self-medicating," Lewis said in a speech at a conference of teachers union leaders.

Uh oh. Oops.

"Oh, I'm sorry, there are kids here. I wasn't supposed to say that, right?" Lewis quickly added after the remark about smoking marijuana.

No, Ms. Lewis, you were not supposed to say that – not in a keynote address at a public conference, not on the eve of negotiating a new contract for 32,000 Chicago teachers.

Not funny, Ms. Lewis, crowing about smoking lots of weed in college.

It's not that you inhaled, but that it didn't occur to you you might be recorded fondly remembering it.

If you're not smart enough to know about open microphones, and to be careful, are you smart enough to negotiate that new contract?

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