He wanted, for example, to use tax money to send students to private schools. That's not what Boston, or any city, needs to fix its schools.

But when Consalvo handed in his resignation, Flynn refused it, to the astonishment of the entire city.

Rather than address the real problems in the schools, Flynn wanted to preserve the symptoms, encouraging a member who couldn't work with his colleagues to stay on and grind the public schools further into gridlock.

He still rounds up the usual scapegoats--Superintendent Lois Harrison-Jones, for example, whose job he'd like to abolish someday. But the responsibility is ultimately on Flynn's head.

If Flynn can't get his own School Committee to do anything right, how does he expect to get anything done in Washington?

In order to get into Clinton's spotlight, Flynn has had to compromise his constituents. If Flynn keeps up his hands-off approach, other, more visible areas of the city may crash and burn, forcing Bostonians to ask whether Flynn really is a modern-day Honey Fitz.

Is Flynn fit to serve in Washington? Hardly.

In Boston? He's only just started his third term, and if he doesn't get a D.C. post, he may just go the way of Kevin White.