No matter how little a person watches TV (and I try to watch as little as possible), it’s hard to escape the latest gossip on Eliot Spitzer, soon-to-be former governor of New York. Word of Spitzer’s various indiscretions and possible felonious misdeeds are plastered all over the newspapers and the Internet as well.
The pundits are picking apart every facet of Spitzer’s dilemma. The media circles like a pack of coyotes surrounding a Chihuahua. While many in the nation are watching the titillating events in New York unfold, there are sex scandals and illegal activities of a certain politician closer to my home in metro Detroit.
Before I proceed with this tale of woe, I have to state that we have lived in this area for over twenty years. We operate businesses in the city of Detroit which employ Detroit residents. We own a building there. This is not a bashing of the city or its people. I would love nothing better than to see this city pick itself up out of the muck and mire, much like New York and Chicago have done. But I am also not one to gloss over corruption and vice just to make people “feel good.”
On January 24, the news broke here that the mayor of Detroit, Kwame Kilpatrick, had not only had a lengthy affair with his Chief of Staff, Christine Beatty, he had also brokered what appears to be a cover-up of the proceeds of a whistleblower trial brought against him and the city last fall by a couple of former Detroit police officers, and perjured himself in a court of law. (Incidentally, in case you were wondering, Ms. Beatty lied on the stand, too.)
The reason for increasing a $6 million dollar settlement to an $8.4 million dollar settlement seems clear: Mr. Mayor wanted to avoid the release of incriminating text messages between him and Beatty. He signed for more money to ensure a confidentiality clause in the settlement with the ex-officers. Thanks to the Detroit News and the Freedom of Information Act, the text messages were eventually released, several months after the trial ended and long after the ink on the settlement had dried. The messages in question were not only steamy, detailing the minutiae of the trysts between the two, they pointed to the fact that yes, indeed, Mayor Kilpatrick conspired to fire the cops in question.
Article comments
1 - Dr Dreadful
Ouch. Bad boy.
I should warn you that you're liable to get into trouble with some commenters for not mentioning Mayor Kilpatrick's political affiliation.
Although this doesn't seem to be such a big deal for mayors in the US. (I'm from Britain originally.) The local media never mentions our mayor's party affiliation, nor that of the candidates who are running to replace him in November.
2 - Dave Nalle
He's mayor of Detroit. I'd be disappointed if he wasn't giving Marion Barry as good a run for his money as DC gives Deteroit for hell on earth.
Dave
3 - Matthew T. Sussman
The thing with mayoral scandals, like Kilpatrick's, is that even though it's on the national radar, nobody outside of Detroit really cares if he resigns or not.
Besides, my own town and mayor have their own scandal.
4 - Dr Dreadful
I wouldn't call that a scandal so much as a controversy, Matt.
5 - Joanne Huspek
Sorry I didn't mention his political affiliation. I thought about including it, but didn't want to mention that he's a Democrat as if that alone were part of the equation. I know some news outlets are doing just that. For the record, I'm an independent, and try to look at a person's performance beyond what party he/she belongs to.
6 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
So which political animal (aside from the woman who was his chief of staff) does Kirkpatrick ride? The wounded elephant or the nasty little jack-ass that made the elephant say, "another victory like this and I am undone"?