15 August 2008

Kwame Kilpatrick Unconventional (Again)

Will Detroit's mayor be allowed to attend the Democratic National Convention? First he was tethered and told he would have to skip his chance to boo boyscouts at the Democrat gathering. Then another judge ruled that he could go, apparently deciding that if every lying cheater in the party were banned from the convention floor then we would truly hear the sound of one hand clapping. Finally the county prosecutor filed an appeal saying that the pending assault charges were the reason for the mayor's restrictions and the court agreed by re-tethering Kilpatrick and canceling his first-class ticket to the Rockies. The situation has flip-flopped like a Barack Obama foreign policy speech. And speaking of his holiness, if Obama had his way Mayor Kilpatrick will be watching the convention on the Manoogian Mansion's widescreen plasma TV that was so generously provided by Detroit tax payers.

Barack Obama doesn't want Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and his legal troubles to be a distraction at the upcoming Democratic National Convention, and he got his wish Thursday when a judge ordered the city executive to stay home.
A Michigan spokesman for Obama, Brent Colburn, said in an e-mail Thursday that the focus of the convention in Denver this month should be on Obama and not on what Colburn called "the troubles of one individual," a reference to Kilpatrick and the two criminal cases he's facing.


Given some of Obama's other associations, you would think a mayor who lies on the stand, abuses city funds and assaults a public servant would provide a perceptible boost to his moral compass. At least Kilpatrick is proud to be an American.

But this is a serious blow for the mayor and Detroit. He has been cast from the party's biggest stage and that does not bode well for the city or the state.

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