Opinion: Kwame Kilpatrick and a fresh episode of ‘As Detroit Turns’
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When we last checked in on the soap opera that is Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, he had just been sprung after a night in the local hoosegow for ticking off a judge by violating the terms of his bond on perjury charges relating to his under-oath statement that he wasn’t sleeping with a top aide (yes, he apparently was).
And then he was arrested again on charges he assaulted a sheriff’s deputy trying to serve a warrant.
Amid all those headaches -- and the very real chance his political career is going the way of auto worker jobs -- Kilpatrick asked the court’s permission to hit the Denver party circuit in less than two weeks for the Democratic National Convention.
Yep, the mayor is a Democratic superdelegate, believe it or not.
And the judge said yes. But then another judge said ‘forget about it.’
This whole sorry saga began with a party and allegations of a cover-up -- and includes a stripper who turned up dead -- and has just gotten more and more bizarre. We’re fascinated. Not because it’s tawdry, but because it falls somewhere between a Theodore Dreiser novel and ‘Law and Order’ episode with a touch of Fatty Arbuckle tossed in.
One thing we do know is that if Kilpatrick ultimately gets to attend the Democratic convention, he’ll be walking around as though he was Radioactive Man in some comic book. Unless, of course, the DNC sets aside a room for him and John Edwards, just to keep them out of the way -- and off camera.
-- Scott Martelle
