Kwazie Kilpatrick's troubles started when he lied in a civil case about an affair he was having, which opened him up to his current charges of perjury. The terms of his bond imposed travel restrictions, which he must have felt he could ignore with impunity, so long as he could make a claim of traveling for business reasons. Further proof of his arrogance is that he could probably have easily gotten permission for the travel in question to Canada, but evidently never made the attempt. He just did it.
Of course, there's more to the story than just that, and Kilpatrick might have yet other charges to answer to. From the Tribune story-
The Michigan State Police are investigating charges that Kilpatrick assaulted a deputy sheriff trying to serve a subpoena last month
So what is this guy's problem? I tend to think what follows might provide somewhat of a clue.
Kilpatrick's mother, U.S. Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, was almost toppled this week because of the scandal surrounding her son. The six-term congresswoman eked out a narrow win in Tuesday's primary election, against two opponents.
So, he comes from a political family, and represents the second generation of a would-be political dynasty, a la Bush, Kennedy, Taft, etc. In other words, here is a guy that was raised with the attitude that he was "born to lead", or, to put it bluntly, that he is privileged. What we have here is a case of political aristocracy at work, and the unavoidable consequences of it.
District Court Judge Roland Giles sentenced him to jail, saying he couldn't justify doing otherwise. Of course, the guy could be up for reelection himself. If he had not been, there's a good chance he would have come up with some line about how sending Kilpatrick to jail would be "a black eye to the reputation of the great city of Detroit" or some such rubbish.
Whatever the case, I think we can safely write finis to this guy's political career. Why is it that it takes a sex scandal to get rid of crooked office holders? If he had perjured himself over taking a few bribes chances are he would be the Chairman of Obama's Detroit campaign committee right now and nobody outside of Detroit would really know anything about this guy.
Of course some voters in some places seem to keep finding reasons to send the same decrepit and corrupt politicians back year after year, so give the people of Detroit at least some credit for not giving this guy a free pass, which is the real reason the judge did not give him a get out of jail free card.
Democracy does put a little bit of fear into office holders, but only when the people pay attention, and actually give a damn.
3 comments:
His mother is not charged with anything. The method of guilt by association is sleazy.
I bet the apple didn't fall too far from the tree. Mainly, though, this is an example of how a relative handful of people control the political system and try to pass it on as a birthright inheritance. Kennedy's, Bushes, Tafts, they're all cut from the same cloth, and so is this guy.
Guys like Kilpatrick, who don't really have any connection to "the people", are the worse possible people to hold political office. They have no interest in serving the people, aside from demagoguing, and the quicker we are rid of them all the better.
To them, we are all a bunch of numbers on a statisticians sheet. People that represent you in Congress should have some idea of the life you live through personal experience, ideally. Of course there are few politicians who are that connected to the people, but guys like this are even further removed than most, and this is the kind of result you get.
You're probably right. It is not a good habit to generalize, without something concrete.
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