EDITORIAL A GLASS DARKLY.

POOR, poor Roy Romer.

As the retiring superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District, he feels like he's under constant personal attack from those who want to seize control of the city's public schools for their own personal and political benefit.

They say it's just about fixing a failed school system. But Romer knows better. He knows what Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and his vast army of supporters really want -- to topple the greatest leader the LAUSD ever had and tarnish his achievements.

This is how it appears the story line is playing in Romer's mind, where a persecution complex has clearly developed.

How else to explain how he might have made such a political faux pas as to compare the plight of the LAUSD to that of Japanese-Americans who were rounded up, relieved of their possessions, property and businesses and interned in concentration camps during World War II?

It was all so clear to Romer: Anti-Japanese lies were being used to foment public anger during the war, just as he believes the mayor is using lies about the LAUSD to foment public anger over the failures of local schools.

Cringe. Is the wealthy former Colorado governor and tractor salesman being robbed of his possessions, locked up in jail, facing angry, hate- filled mobs?

Obviously, in Romer's mind, it must look that way. Here he's done this brilliant job of building schools (without really integrating them as neighborhood centers) and raised test scores (without lowering the dropout rate) and these sinister forces are trying to convince people something is fundamentally wrong in the LAUSD.

Romer really should have known better. There are certain historical events that are still raw enough that most people know enough to tread on lightly, if at all. Those would include the Holocaust, Sept. 11, 2001, and the internment of Japanese-Americans. It diminishes and exploits history's horrors to compare them to petty political grievances.

But what the offended may not realize is that Romer wasn't being insensitive when he said the propaganda being spread about LAUSD is akin to the racist, ugly misinformation spread to get Americans on board with the Japanese internment plan. He actually really believes it.

Therein lies Romer's biggest problem. His head games aren't earning him or the school district any points in this struggle over governance.

He could have been part of the reform effort from the start, even led it. Instead he chose to fight it, defending his achievements and declaring every reformer an enemy.

Is it any wonder, then, that he now sees himself as a victim of historic proportions?

Ease up, Roy. You've done a lot of things well and left a lot of work still to be done. There's still time to change course and go out a winner.