Kwame Kilpatrick had a bad night.

[Jeffro]

Detroit mayor's lawyers seek to free him from jail
By ED WHITE and COREY WILLIAMS, Associated Press Writers
57 minutes ago
Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick spent the night in a one-man jail cell with no TV and a phone only for collect calls, the consequence of violating his bond in a criminal case that has dogged him for months.

His legal problems could get much worse.

State police have wrapped up their investigation of a confrontation between Kilpatrick and a sheriff's detective who claims he was pushed while recently trying to serve a subpoena on the mayor's friend.

Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox scheduled a news conference Friday morning to announce the results. Kilpatrick's legal team was not optimistic, predicting that some kind of charge was a "done deal."

"If they want to bring the charges, let's go. It's the only way to get it resolved," defense attorney Jim Parkman said.

Separately, the mayor and a former top aide are charged with perjury, misconduct and obstruction of justice, all tied to their testimony in a civil trial last year. At the heart of the case: steamy text messages contradicting their claim that they didn't have a romantic relationship.

Kilpatrick had paid $7,500 — 10 percent of his bond in the perjury case — to remain free while that case moves through court, along with other conditions, including notifying the court about leaving the state on city business.

He acknowledged violating that term when he visited Windsor, Ontario — minutes away from Detroit — on July 23 to discuss the sale of the city's portion of a tunnel connecting the U.S. and Canada. He didn't call prosecutors or the court.

"I'm asking for another chance," the mayor pleaded Thursday to District Judge Ronald Giles.

The judge's response was swift and surprising: Jail for the leader of the country's 11th-largest city.

"I don't claim to have a good understanding of what your responsibilities are. ... But I have to look at how the (court) system is run and perceived by the public," Giles told Kilpatrick.

Circuit Judge Thomas E. Jackson said he would hear an appeal of the order Friday morning.

Defense attorney Jim Thomas called Giles' ruling "extreme." Parkman said they would propose an electronic tether or some other conditions to get Kilpatrick out of jail.

The mayor was transported to jail in a sheriff's van, photographed, given a green jumpsuit and placed in a one-man cell for high-profile people.

Although not in the general jail population, Kilpatrick was being treated like any other prisoner — "no better, no worse," Sheriff Warren Evans said. Evans told WDIV-TV Friday morning that Kilpatrick had an "uneventful night" in jail and would be permitted to dress in civilian clothes for Friday's court hearing.

Earlier Thursday, Kilpatrick and Christine Beatty waived their right to a preliminary exam in the perjury case. That means those charges now go directly to Wayne County Circuit Court. Arraignment was set for Aug. 14. Both deny the charges.

Deputy Mayor Kandia Milton is running the city while Kilpatrick is in jail.

"Detroit's government will continue to operate as usual. ... Trash will continue to be collected, recreation centers will remain open, grass will be cut and fires will be extinguished," a statement from the mayor's office said.

Kilpatrick has resisted calls for his resignation or a plea bargain as his legal woes pile up.

City Council President Ken Cockrel Jr. would succeed Kilpatrick if the mayor resigns or is forced from office.

In May, the Detroit City Council asked Gov. Jennifer Granholm to invoke a little-used state law and remove Kilpatrick from office for misconduct. A hearing is scheduled for Sept. 3.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080808/ap_on_re_us/detroit_mayor_charges

BEATTY TO MAYOR: "I really wanted to give you some good head this morning and I didn't know how to ask you to let me do it. I have wanted to since Friday night when you asked me at the club."

MAYOR TO BEATTY: "Damn. I just got out of the shower and looked at my two way. Next time, just tell me to sit down, shut up and do your thing! I'm fucked up now!

[Greenmachine]

I am surprised that it took the lounge this long to pile on. It was all over the news yesterday here in Detroit. It makes it even worse that the national media is here for the PGA championship.

[Jeffro]

The Kwame text messages are golden. That he has not been impeached or pressured to resign is all one needs to know about the Detroit political culture.

[Greenmachine]

HE has, the city council asked for his resignation at least twice, but he has said F U. That is why the Wayne county prosecutor has taken steps to bring charges. He has also blown his bond on more than one occasion. Maybe by his ass being in jail the Gov. will remove him or he might get some common sense to resign. I highly doubt it.

[Jeffro]

Kwame Kilpatrick - better or worse mayor than Marion Berry?

[Schwahalala]

Kwame Kilpatrick - better or worse mayor than Marion Berry?

Worse - except his didn't involve begging a crack head for some ass.

[Jeffro]

Worse - except his didn't involve begging a crack head for some ass.

The important thing to remember about Marion Berry is that after he went to jail for using crack with hookers, he was RE-ELECTED as mayor of DC and I believe at present is on the city council.

[FAR52]

Yeah, but he has at least one good friend.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZNvC_-RW2Q

[Jeffro]

"We know that he is going to be doing astounding things for many years to come."

Well, that's one way to put it.

[Greenmachine]

the arraignment today has ruled on a new $50,000 bond and a ankle tether. The Gov. has a hearing on 9/3 to determine his removal, but I don't think she should wait.

[i.am.js]

The Kwame text messages are golden. That he has not been impeached or pressured to resign is all one needs to know about the Detroit political culture.

Boom! Outta here!

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,416543,00.html

Kwame Kilpatrick stepped down as the mayor of Detroit Thursday after pleading guilty to two counts of obstruction of justice stemming from a sex-and-misconduct scandal that has plagued the Motor City for months.
Kilpatrick also pleaded no contest to assaulting or obstructing a public officer as part of the plea agreement, which ends his role as mayor of the nation's 11th-largest city.

[kah]

I guess there's no way to impeach a mayor.

[SunuvaNun]

Kwame Kilpatrick stepped down as the mayor of Detroit Thursday after pleading guilty to two counts of obstruction of justice stemming from a sex-and-misconduct scandal that has plagued the Motor City for months.
Kilpatrick also pleaded no contest to assaulting or obstructing a public officer as part of the plea agreement, which ends his role as mayor of the nation's 11th-largest city.

Thank fucking god.

[007]

I don't want to start another political thread, so I'll post it here b/c the subject of the thread is one and the same here...

Newsweek: How Kilpatrick's fall hurts Obama

Keith Naughton
Newsweek Web Exclusive
Updated: 8:15 AM ET Sep 5, 2008

Long before sex, lies and texting caused Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick to plead guilty to two felonies and resign on Thursday, he and Barack Obama shared a warm man-hug before a huge Motown crowd. It came 16 months ago, as Obama was launching his campaign for president with a scalding speech to the Detroit Economic Club upbraiding Detroit's automakers for not building more fuel-efficient cars. But while that speech gave Obama "green" street-cred, his praise of Kilpatrick as a "great mayor" who will do "astounding things for many years to come" backfired. As Kilpatrick now heads to jail for four months, for obstruction of justice, two attack ads have already appeared on the Web replaying Obama's Kwame moment. One, produced by the conservative Freedom's Defense Fund, shows Kilpatrick's mug shot, as the 10 felonies he faced scroll down the screen while Obama says, "I'm grateful to call him a friend." The ad ends ominously with the line: "You should know who Obama's friends are."

Even with Kwame Kilpatrick in the slammer, Barack Obama will be dogged by the scandal that brought down Detroit's mayor. For starters, Kilpatrick won't be around to lead the get-out-the-vote effort in dependably Democratic Detroit, which could be decisive in the toss-up state of Michigan, where Obama clings to a slim lead over John McCain. But beyond the mechanical breakdown, Kilpatrick's salacious, headline-commandeering controversy has inflamed the racial tensions that have rived this region. Detroit is 81 percent black and the poorest city in America, according to new census data, while the surrounding suburbs are 81 percent white and include some of the most affluent enclaves in the country. Ever since the riots of 1967, Detroiters have divided themselves along racial lines, and politicians on both sides of the city's cultural fault line--the 8 Mile Road made famous by Eminem--have stoked racial fears to get elected. "This Kwame Kilpatrick mess has splattered over onto the Obama campaign at the worst possible time," says veteran Detroit political consultant Sam Riddle. "Kilpatrick's brand of leadership has fed into the worst stereotypes that white voters have about black leaders."

That could explain why Obama has worked so hard lately to stiff-arm the mayor he once embraced. First, he asked him to stay away from the Democratic National Convention--which was no problem, since the mayor was wearing an electronic tether at the time and had been ordered by a judge not to travel beyond metropolitan Detroit. Then on Wednesday evening, a few hours after the prosecutor announced Kilpatrick was copping a plea, Obama issued a statement saying, "It is time for the mayor to step aside so that the city can move forward."

The next morning, Kilpatrick, 38, stepped before a judge and admitted: "I lied under oath" in a whistleblower trial last summer, where he hotly denied he had an affair with his then chief of staff, Christine Beatty. Steamy text messages from Beatty's city-issued pager, first published in the Detroit Free Press in January, contradicted that testimony and led to charges against both. (Beatty is also being offered a deal by the prosecutor, but hasn't indicated whether she will accept yet). To end his eight-month sex saga, the mayor agreed to cop to two counts of obstruction of justice in a deal that cost him his job, his law license, $1 million in restitution, his pension, his liberty for 120 days and the ability to run for office for the next five years while he is on probation. Kilpatrick also pleaded no contest to charges that he assaulted a police officer, who was trying to serve a subpoena on a friend of the mayor.

The Obama camp followed up with another statement that echoed what they'd said the night before: "The serious charges against the mayor were a distraction the city could not afford and his immediate resignation is the only way for the city to move forward." McCain, who will be campaigning in suburban Detroit Friday, remained silent.

Obama's attempts to distance himself might help, but he risks siding with the forces that some Detroiters see as enemies out to disenfranchise them. After all, Kilpatrick only agreed to his plea deal after Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm began historic hearings Wednesday to consider forcibly removing him from office. It's no coincidence that on the day before Granholm's hearing, a graffiti artist scribbled this on the limestone walls of Detroit's city hall: "The white man wants Kwame gone to take the rest of Detroit's money." Among the Kilpatrick die-hards in Detroit--still a significant minority--Obama could be viewed as a traitor. "People are upset he waited until the last minute and then piled on," says political consultant and Kilpatrick supporter Adolph Mongo.

To comfortably keep Michigan Blue, as it has been since 1992, Mongo contends Obama needs a near-record turnout in the city of Detroit, on the order of 60 percent of the registered voters. By comparison, when John Kerry took Michigan by 3 points in 2004, just more than 40 percent of Detroit's registered voters showed up at the polls. Without Kilpatrick around to oil Detroit's political machine, getting out the vote will be difficult, says Mongo. And campaigning with Granholm won't help. "The governor can't come in here and get anybody to vote for Obama," says Mongo. "She's the 800-pound gorilla that made this resignation possible."

To the rest of Michigan, where Kilpatrick had a 2 percent approval rating, that makes Granholm a hero. And that seems to be the political calculus that Obama is banking on to win him votes in the mostly white swing suburbs surrounding Detroit. "Michigan voters know that Mayor Kilpatrick's troubles are his own," Obama spokesman Brent Colburn told NEWSWEEK, "and that Barack Obama is focused on bringing people together to solve the serious challenges we face."

But when it comes to race, Michigan's Democrats have proven fickle. In 2006, even as it re-elected Democrats Granholm and Sen. Debbie Stabenow, Michigan voters overwhelmingly approved a ballot proposal outlawing affirmative action. The move was a surprise since polls leading up to Election Day predicted the proposal would fail and affirmative action would carry the day. But Michigan voters showed an unwillingness to give minorities an edge in college admissions or landing government jobs--an ominous sign for Obama. Since then, Kilpatrick has stoked racial tension, accusing his critics of having a "lynch-mob mentality" and invoking the N-word in a defiant state of the city speech. "Race is the elephant in the room," says Steve Mitchell, the mayor's former pollster. "Because the mayor is African American, it has fueled some real racist thoughts in people."

Colburn contends that Obama is building grassroots support throughout Michigan thanks to his background as a community organizer (the job much ridiculed by GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin Wednesday night). Already, Obama has 30 field offices in Michigan--10 more than John Kerry had at this time four years ago. And when Obama opened up his Detroit field-office this summer, Colburn claims the campaign signed up 1,300 volunteers. "We're confident the structure that we're building will get out the vote," he said.

But before this summer, Obama went nearly a year without setting foot in Michigan. He took his name off the ballot and stayed away during Michigan's controversial January primary, conducted in defiance of Democrat Party rules. "There's a grassroots gap between the Obama campaign and Michigan," says Riddle. "Without the Michigan primary, they haven't had a dress rehearsal on getting out the vote."

They'd better hope it goes better than Obama's Labor Day speech in Detroit. It was billed as the restoration of a tradition where the likes of Truman and Kennedy kicked off their fall campaign with a rousing speech at Detroit's huge Labor Day parade. But some in the overflow crowd in Detroit's Hart Plaza left disappointed. In deference to Hurricane Gustav, Obama cut short his remarks and called for unity in the face of nature's fury. "What he did was make thousands of people stand in line for a five-minute speech," truck driver Phil Robinson groused to The Free Press. "It was a missed opportunity." What wasn't missed: Kwame Kilpatrick, who reportedly spent his Labor Day at a private picnic. Now with the Detroit's radioactive mayor out of the way for good, Obama has a chance to finally put his Motown man-hug behind him.

[kah]

I don't want to start another political thread, so I'll post it here b/c the subject of the thread is one and the same here...

Newsweek: How Kilpatrick's fall hurts Obama

Oh whatever. Obama will carry Michigan.