JoelOnTheRoad will be back Monday with a concise analysis of how the University of Michigan screwed up in its season opener against Utah, together with a killer strategy Coach Rodriguez will want to adopt for sure. Then Tuesday, I’ll return with another edition of “Norman, me and Chicago ’68.”
[donation]
By Joel Thurtell
“MAYOR’S FATE RESTS ON JUST 2 QUESTIONS,” a huge, doubledecker Detroit Free Press headline blared in the paper’s August 27 print edition.
Guess they thought better of it on the Web, where a sedate headline murmured, “With historic hearing, Granholm sends clear message to Kilpatrick.”
Note the switch from all upper case in the print version to caps-and-lower-case on the Web.
Wonder what happened.
Well, someone with sense got into the act is a remote possibility.
“MAYOR’S FATE RESTS ON JUST 2 QUESTIONS.”
Oh, really?
Just two?
You mean all that special print lobbying the Free Press did makes no difference to his fate?
All the grandstanding by Detroit City Council members, some of who are sweating whether they’ll be indicted for the same kind of corruption Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick is charged with — that makes no difference?
Council members, hmmm. Might some of them not benefit by a sudden power vacuum if Kwame were removed by the gov?
Grandstanding by business leaders, some of whom might profit also by an absence of Kwame — that’s not part of the equation?
Why, we’ll be needing candidates, won’t we? Maybe a rich business man would come forth to lead.
What about theatrics by an attorney general not famous for taking on public officials, unless they’re on the ropes?
And what about that push and shove from a governor and former federal prosecutor who knows well enough that removing Kwame — affirmatively answering those two questions before the mayor has a chance to defend himself in a real court with hard and fast rules of evidence — would taint him with potential jurors and doom any chance he has of getting a fair trial?
Question No. 1, according to the Freep: Did hizzoner settle police lawsuits “in furtherance of his personal and private interests?” Question No. 2: Did the mayor “conceal from or fail to disclose to” council members “information material to its review and approval of the settlements?”
What a crock, to suggest those two questions alone could doom the man. It takes a bigger pileup than that to bring a mayor down.
The governor has promised to hold a hearing and render her decision immediately afterward.
Seems weird: No time for reflection?
Wonder if she’s already made up her mind?
And now we learn that she can’t compel witnesses to testify and five of them — lawyers all — are boycotting her hearing.
Could be a lonely day in Detroit for the gov.
But it’s pretty clear where she’s heading. Why go through the charade if there’s a chance she’ll answer “no” to those two questions?
Wouldn’t that be a waste of time?
But wait — what’s wrong with me? Don’t I know that the city’s in crisis? Gotta push the mayor out fast so the city can recover from…hmmm… from, well, from what? The last 41 years of descent into chaos begun with a police raid on a blind pig in 1967? Of course, Detroit’s plight began long before then. Long before anyone heard of a Kwame Kilpatrick.
Hey, make no mistake, I think the guy’s a mess. I wondered when he was elected and was amazed at his re-election. But Detroiters elected him. Suburbanites and outstaters had no say in that. Detroiters could recall him if they truly wanted him out. No need for a hurry-up job from the governor.
Sweep him out along with all that history so some new smartasses can march in and show how much more honest and straighforward they wish we would believe they could be.
Justice in Detroit.
No, actually, Justice in Michigan.
All wrapped up long before the November election, when we wouldn’t want the mayor’s quest for a fair trial to get in the way of electing a Democrat to the White House.
Drop me a line at joelthurtell(at)gmail.com
