Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick pleaded guilty to two felony counts of obstruction of justice on Thursday morning. Kilpatrick will forfeit his office and serve 120 days in jail, ending a scandal that began when the Detroit Free Press published raunchy text messges between Kilpatrick and his ex-chief of staff. Messages proving that, in spite of Kilpatrick's testimony during a civil lawsuit, the pair had, in fact, been knocking boots, according to Salon.com
The mayor will turn over his state pension to the city of Detroit, which paid $8.4 million to settle two whistle-blower lawusuits three former cops filed against the city, reports Freep.com The mayor was charged with eight felony counts ranging from conspiracy to perjury, to misconduct in office, to obstruction of justice, after the Free Pres revealed that the mayor lied on the witness stand during a whistle-blower trial and gave misleading testimony about whether he intended to fire a deputy police chief investigating allegations of wrongdoing by a member of his inner circle.
In a rushed monotone, Kilpatrick told the court: "I lied under oath in the case of Gary Brown and Harold Nelthrope versus the city of Detroit. I did so with the intent to mislead the court and jury, to impede and obstruct the disposition of justice."
As much as Detroiters are relived to be rid of their lubricious, dissembling mayor, Barack Obama has to be even more relieved.
Last year, before addressing the Detroit Economic Club, Obama praised Kilpatrick as "a great mayor." This year, he told the mayor to stay away from the Democratic National Convention. On Wednesday, as Kilpatrick apparently balked at accepting a plea deal, Obama issued a public statement asking him to resign. The longer Kilpatrick stayed in office, the more the Detroit-phobic white voters of Michigan were liable to ask, "If a black Democrat can't run the city, how can one run the country?"
In 2008, with the economy in recession --in free fall in Michigan-- this bluish-purple state, which hasn't gone for a Republican presidential candidate since 1988, should be Obama's for the taking. With Kilpatrick's misbehavior dominating the local news on every TV station in a metro area that holds nearly half of Michigan's population, he's barely leading. A recent Detroit News poll has him beating McCain 43-41.
