Perhaps this has escaped your advisors, but one of them should have given you this sage advice: “Maintain a low profile.” Be polite. Calm. Cool. Respectful. Don’t swear and for God’s sake don’t get into shoving matches with court officers. Of course, when your own attorneys are downplaying the “assault” by telling the press the incident was “blown out of proportion” I have to wonder what kind of legal counsel you are surrounded yourself with.
The Kilpatrick Saga is troubling on so many levels. The sensible business person in me sees a black man, an attorney, who is most likely fairly intelligent, pulling stunt after stunt after stupid stunt that further embarrasses the city and the state. I have ideas for my Detroit business, but I feel uneasy expanding what I have in this uncertain environment. I'm sure others in a similar position feel the same way.
The taxpayer in me is angered and annoyed because every day the Kilpatrick fiasco continues is another day that drains away the city's already lean coffers.
The mom in me is aghast that anyone in their right mind could imagine that they could be entitled to act in this manner. As a mother who has compelled my children to write apology notes (a LOT of them), I would be impressing upon my offspring to show some decency. On one hand, I wonder about the parenting skills of Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, but on the other hand, I know that as a mother of a grown child myself, you can't expect to blame all bad behavior on the parents.
One thing is for sure: the misadventures of Kwame Kilpatrick certainly provide a lot of fodder for the print and electronic media and make for great, if not distressing, entertainment. I can see the newspapers and local TV networks wringing their hands in glee as the rest of us cringe.
Article comments
1 - Arch Conservative
This guy and Jennifer Granholm should visit Cape Cod so that Ted Kennedy can show them around in his 1967 Olds.
2 - Joanne Huspek
Thanks for the laugh, Arch.
3 - Arch Conservative
Most people in MI don't have much to laugh about these days so I'm glad to do my part Joanne.
4 - Ruvy
Joanne,
Has your county been annexed to my own country that you cannot rid yourselves of this corrupt scum? He sounds like an American version of Olmert or Peres....
Welcome to Israel, Joanne. Can you get Hebrew lessons now that you are part of the corrupt republic of the Jews?
Let's start you with your first word in Hebrew, fitting to the situation you and other Michiganers (crazy people, in other words) find yourselves in.
protéktzya - the emphasis is on the second accented syllable; protéktzya is illegal influence of or protection by government officials.
And your first phrase:
mi abbá shelákh? Literally, "who is your father?", meaning actually "which bureaucrat is providing you with protéktzya?"
5 - maskay
As a fellow michigander I totally agree. He should have left office long ago.
The saddest part is now his lawyers are claiming the prosecuters office changed the text messages.
Must be some pretty bad stuff in the next batch to be released if they are already saying that.
6 - Joanne Huspek
Ruvy, I have a feeling the corruption in Detroit is a deep and mighty river of sludge. It's going to take a lot to clean that mess up. I wonder how they did it in Chicago? New York?
You couldn't make up a story as wild as this one.
7 - Marcia Neil
Actually, influence-networking has infected San Francisco, CA, during the past few decades and the Kilpatrick family bakery was suddenly dis-continued as a suspicious action probably linked with paperwork covert 'vote'.