Obama had pegged Kilpatrick for a top cabinet post before this.

Those who doubt that the press buries an politico's party allegience in the midst of a scandal if they happen to be a Dem, just follow the coverage of this story. The wire story that broke this story didn't even mention his party affiliation. Unreal.

Dan Webb went to Loyola.

Detroit is the saddest story ever.

MR. PROSECUTOR: who were you sending all these text messages to?
MS. BEATTY: idk my bff kwame
THE COURT: i didn't catch that. please use actual words.
MS. BEATTY: tisnf

idk my bff jill filipovic?

More black municipal politics.

PS Did you see the prosecutor's cable TV announcement of the criminal charges?

Not succinct, articulate, or reassuring on any level.

PPS: Vote Obama!!!!

How is Kwame paying for Dan Webb and Winston?

Winston defended Gov. Ryan pro bono in part because of his friendship with Webb and former Gov. Thompson (Webb's predecessor as chairman at Winston)

Considering Webb's adversary (as seen in her press briefing) this case is winnable despite the mountain of evidence against Da Mayor.

Why does Kwame look like Big Boi from Outkast?

detroit deserves everything it elects. kwame used city money to have hummer limos drive him around the city during the first term and they reelected him. then, john conyer's wife (a detroit city council member) threatened to shoot one of kilpatrick's aides. new jersey and new york should just be happy that their politicians just buy high-end prostitutes, use campaign money for hotels with their mistresses, or have affairs with aides and promote them to homeland security advisor positions. what detroit needs is a rudy giuliani to replace their david dinkins.

I'm glad that posts like 4:05 PM's remind me of the closet bigots and racists that masquerade as BIGLAW attorneys.

Guilty of being a black man in a white man's world.

I blame General Motors for this.

4:14, how do 4:05's accurate statements make him a bigot?

Can we just give Detriot to Canada? Would they even take it?

oh yeah Mikey?

i blame the trial lawyers. and the homosexuals. not to mention the inconvenient truth that tree huggers are also partially responsible.

4:28: we might as well give them all of michigan, the bay area, albany, and trenton.

People this stupid (who send 14,000 texts messages filled with sex talk to their aides) deserve whatever they get. It is just hilarious to me that someone that stupid is elected. I think that speaks to just how dumb/desparate the citizens of Detriot really are. I don't really think anyone is surprised by this.

"Because if some federal mothafucker comes walkin' through the door, I say hey, it's all in the game! But a city police, [Detroit] City, Hell Naaaw, can't be happenin' because I know I done raised too much goddamn money... Hell Naaaw, aint no soul in the world that fuckin' ungrateful!"

God damn America!

4:23-

That seems pretty obvious.

bigot: One who is strongly partial to one's own group, religion, race, or politics and is intolerant of those who differ.

4:05's statement's imply an intolerance of blacks. The sweeping negative statement and the reference to Obama suggest that 4:05 thinks that all black people make poor politicians. I'd say that's good evidence that 4:05 is intolerant of at least one race different from his/her own.

You are all idiots.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ME2tkIh7VE0

It's fine for work, just don't turn it up too loud. Kwame's Mommy screams a lot.

democrat or republican?

the AP doesn' t say and neither does Lat, so Kwame must be a democrat.

4:39 display's a lac'k of familiarit'y with opostroph'e us'e.

Is it:

"All Democrats are felons"

or

"All felons are Democrats?"

I always get it mixed up

How do we know that Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick is a liberal Democrat?

(1) The media conveniently omits any reference to his political affiliation.

(2) He committed adultery in office, and then perjury over said adultery.

(3) His supporters make "arguments" like 4:21's to justify his actions.

(4) All of the above.

Thank you, Bill Clinton, for setting the example. With McGreevey, Spitzer, and now Kilpatrick, one can no longer argue that your failure to eliminate Bin Laden when given the opportunity is your only legacy.

The AP story I read doesn't even mention his party affiliation. It cryptically says he's a "rising star," but conveniently fails to metion rising for whom. Compare coverage of the Craig scandal and tell me that the print media isn't biased.

Mark Foley. Duke Cunningham. Tom Delay. David Vitter. Noe & the Ohio GOP (rare coins, anyone?). Rep. Young & Sen. Stevens & the whole Alaska GOP. That hilarious Florida state GOP legislator who paid an undercover black cop in hopes of performing fellatio on the undercover office. Scooter Libby. The NRCC & its missing millions. Rick Santorum (ok, nothing particularly illegal, but being as dumb as he is ought to be a crime).

but yes, somehow the dems are rife with corruption. hilarious.

Lied his a%% off on the stand, then when they showed him the text messages proving him a liar, came up with 9 million of TAXPAYER money to settle?

I'm sure he is perfectly innocent. I hope his "exoneration" comes soon as possible.

5:00, Fed Soc:

Relax. You are BOTH right!!!

5:00: You missed Fed Soc's point. It was that Bill Clinton made Democrats the morally bankrupt and criminal characters that they are today. NOT that Republicans are any better.

Man, are you stupid!

Maybe they left out the party affiliation because now when this happens, it's just presumed the guy's a Democrat. This seems to be pretty standard issue for them now. Perhaps it's only still newsworthy if it's a Republican?

5:27: Hiyo!

4:14 - if you can't say anything racist on this thread, don't say anything at all.

now...Kwame is saying that his defense is that they can't prove that he was the one who actually sent the messages.

the guy is a thug, supported by his mother who is in the U.S. House of Rep. He puts family in friends in positions of power. He uses taxpayer money for cars, vacations, parties, etc.

Then he claims that the media is racist and that the jury that convicted him did it because he was black.

dear "fed soc is blind,"

Of course both parties have plenty of politicians guilty of soliciting prostitutes, cheating on spouses, perjury, etc.

The point is that main stream media makes sure to emphasize that a republican, like Larry Craig, David Vitter, etc. is a republican. Contrast that with today's story and those about Spitzer that didn't even mention party affiliation.

-anon 4:44

Kwame? You might as well just named that kid "food stamps."

Only in Detroit. Well, maybe Atlanta too.

anon 4:44: "fed soc is blind" was responding to Fed Soc. And Fed Soc's point was not that the media's coverage is biased.

5:51 - I know to whom your handle refers.

"Kwame is saying that his defense is that they can't prove that he was the one who actually sent the messages"

Please tell me you're kidding, or point me to a link.

Fed Soc: Peaches are purple.

fed soc is blind: No, peaches aren't purple.

anon 4:44: Actually, fsib, apples are red.

still no mention in any media report besides fox that he was a democrat.

How strange.

5:59: Drudge.

4:05, here's evidence that there are white and black politicians alike who are untrustworthy.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/3/23/95418/5038/471/482606

BY the way, what possibly do Kwame and Obama have in common besides skin color?

Wait, don't answer that. Let's start comparing, say, Hispanics to other Hispanics with no obvious connection. (Next week we'll do blind Native Americans!)

I'll start: Hispanic Nobel Peace Prize Winner Rigoberta Menchu and Hispanic Comedian George Lopez.

If 1 in 7 black men are in prison... do you really want to elect one to public office?! Go white or ASIAN!

We need more Mormon office holders -- those are some responsible, diligent and law-abiding people.

Who can say anything against the modern Mormon?

How do you know they are Democrats?

Oh. It doesn't say they are Republicans. Silly me.

pahahahaha: his attorney is arguing the text messages "should not have been produced in civil litigation" under the Stored Communications Act, and therefore the prosecutor had no right to learn of their existence and thereafter subpoena them via proper channels; therefore all this evidence must be thrown out. After which the lawyer will say, "Ta Da!"

What a fucking dumbass.

Wait, I'm confused, is this guy a Democrat or a Republican? The media doesn't want to talk about that.
And its confusing, because you know, there are a lot of Republicans named Kwame.

Are you kidding me? Why don't they list his party affiliation? Well, maybe it goes without saying. Does anyone actually think that the black mayor of Detroit might be a Republican?

To quote the infamous Morton Downey, Jr., Democrats should (literally) just ZIP IT!

Kwame needs to step down--and he should have done it last fall. It amazes me what the voters have tolerated from him/his administration (unexplained murders, the "Friends and Family Plan," the Navigators, the stripper parties at the Manoogian Mansion, etc., etc., etc.). His expulsion from office is long overdue.

Kym Worthy, the prosecutor, is a VERY able prosecutor, and so is her team. She used to be a local court judge. She decided not to run for judge again because she felt that she could effectuate more change by running for prosecutor and winning. She's the first African-American prosecutor for that county. And, to all of you status whores, she's a graduate of Michigan (undergrad) and Notre Dame (law school). So even though she won't be prosecuting this case, given the proof that she appears to have, I guess the question for Kwame and his paramour should be "Would you like an orange or a blue jumpsuit?"

Dan Webb--word is that Ford Motor Company (a Winston client) is one of the major underwriters of Kwame's defense team. He's supposedly flying on private jets to meet with his lawyers. Webb is one of the best criminal defense lawyers around, but given that Gov. Ryan is in jail for taking some bribes, and given some of the arguments that Webb has mentioned in front of the media regarding the text messages and selective prosecution (LOL!!!), I think that maybe Webb should be asking his client what color jumpsuit he might like....
Word is also that the US Atty has some things in the works too. A mess.
And, Mama Kilpatrick is the head of the Congressional Black Caucus (D).

A total mess.

9:27 - does anyone really believe that the white senator from ID might be a Dem? Yet you couldn't see a story about Craig without Republican being mentioned in the headline or the frist paragraph.

If you're a politico, your party affiliation should not go without saying (unless maybe you're the Pres), particularly if you're of the relatively obscure variety of politico and a "rising star" to boot. Second, the handling of this scandal by the media does, in my view, clearly demonstrate the media's willingnes to bury one's party affiliation if you're a dem in a scandal. For godsake, the AP story breaking this news didn't even mention his party affiliation!

Lat, please start moderating again to get the racist trolls off the website.

On a related note, what a shitstorm this is. It's amazing that Kilpatrick has been able to hold on this long when Spitzer resigned immediately. If anything, Spitzer could've held on longer.

The reason the press doesn't mention the party affiliation of Democrats caught in scandals as prominently as the party affiliation of Republicans is that they want to annoy one particular tool who keeps posting about the injustice of it on ATL, as though he were the first person to notice that the media leans liberal. The media want to bother him because they can. Basically, its a vast left wing conspiracy.

Its also possible that party affiliation is more relevant for Republicans in these types of scandals because the Republicans paint themselves the party of family values, etc. The Democratic party doesn't focus much on sexual immorality, so the hypocrisy angle is much stronger with Republicans. With Sptizer, the hypocrisy arose not from his party affiliation, but from the fact that he had prosecuted prostitution rings, and that was the fact that was played up. (Just imagine if Spitzer had been busted for insider trading - Wall Street would have had a collective orgasm.)

It would be interesting to see what the media would do if a Democrat got busted for something their party vocally opposes - "Democratic Senator sued for race/sex discrimination," or "Democrat arrested in protest against abortion clinic," might be interesting headlines. But in general its hard to generate much scandal and titillation out of socialized medicine or withdrawal from Iraq. Family values, on the other hand, are a rich target for seeking out hypocrisy.

14,000 texts? damnnnn....

11:27 - pure bollocks. You've entirely missed the point. The question isn't who's the bigger hypocrite. The question is whether the media is being even-handed. They're not and you're not. Spitzer and Kilpatrick are huge hypocrites, just as Craig and Foley are. Somehow, there's still no mention of Kwame's party affiliation even though he was a "rising star."

And yes, they're both hypocrites. Rented stretch limos, lavish parties and lying repeately under oath are hypocrital considering the dem party is the party of honest government and the working class.

11:27, is it the job of journalists to point out hypocrisy?

@11:55 - "Rented stretch limos, lavish parties and lying repeately under oath are hypocrital considering the dem party is the party of honest government and the working class."

OK, I'll give you "working class," at least as an aspiration, though Reagan certainly challenged that assumption. But "the party of honest government"??!! Please! From Tammany Hall in New York to Richard Daley (the father) in Chicago to Marion Barry in DC, Democrats had more than a little to do with corrupt "machine" politics. And then of course there was the Clinton Administration, most of whose cabinet secretaries seemed to be under investigation by independent counsels at any given time. No, Dems misusing taxpayer money is not a bigger story than Repubs doing the same. And as for lying under oath, Slick Willy wrote the book on that. Obviously Dems SAY they are for honest government, but so do Republicans, in equal degree. No one really runs on a theme of having the most corrupt administration ever. All crooked politicians are hypocrits in that sense, but part affiliation has little to do with it.

JT @12:00 - yes, the journalism schools probably probably would say that it is part of the news media's professional calling to expose hypocrisy. Certainly on the everyday level, it is "the job of journalists" to sell papers. Sex sells, hypocrisy sells, and the two of them together really sell. JT should try bringing sexual hypocrisy back.

11:27. Since when is the Republican party the sole party of family values? I'll bet that Harry Reid, John Edwards and Obama would disagree with that assessment.

"Obviously Dems SAY they are for honest government, but so do Republicans, in equal degree. No one really runs on a theme of having the most corrupt administration ever."

Then you're conceding that both parties are hypocritical? Your statement indicates that both sides are hypocritical in that they say one thing and do another--the essence of hypocrisy. Dems run as honest govt. types (especially as of late) and so do Reps. Logically, that would mean members of both parties are hypocritical when they're involved in corruption, lying, taking kick backs etc. So, by your own logic, wouldn't that mean that the media should be eqully quick to indicate party affiliation when a Dem is involved in corruption, lying, etc., a la Kilpatrick? Or are you saying that you personally don't like the Rep variety of hypocrisy and that the Dem version is, to you, less offensive and deserving of media attention?

The last half dozen or so comments all combine to make a case for the following: journalists should be as objective as possible in their reporting, and leave it to the viewer to determine whether something is hypocritical. The left-leaning media tries way to hard to "put stories in context," instead of letting the reader draw his own conclusion.

Because the media is not objective in the least, we get the silly notions that R's care only about "family values" and social issues; that D's care for the poor and R's only care for the rich; and that D's fight for minorities, but Bush and R's hate black people. It's all nonsense.

The burying of Kilpatrick's status as a Democrat is glaring and, at this point, seems intentional. Reporting on politics is usually pretty standard -- you name the individual, and you usually name their title and party. Hasn't been happening here.

I'll make part of the opposing argument though: there is some explanation for the difference in identification of executive officials (mayor, governor, etc.), as opposed to legislative (senator, congressman, etc.). Party affiliation for legislators is always important because they are collaborative bodies dominated by the majority party. If one of the parties might lose a seat in the legislature, that's important for the reader to know. Party is less important to the reader for executive officials.

Again, all that said though, this story has blown up into a national story. Most people had no idea who this guy was, but a salacious story about the mayor of a big city is going to be big news. And a simple reference to his party affiliation would be expected.

No, I'm saying that hypocrisy related to government corruption applies equally to both parties, which is why party affiliation is less central in stories about government corruption. Hypocrisy in sexual morality is more powerful with Republicans, because Democrats don't have much of a standard there to be hypocritical about.

As to which party I favor, I'm actually a conservative and a Republican. But I'm getting really tired of the way fellow conservatives of the Bill O'Reilly school have rushed to play the victim card themselves: "The media doesn't like us! They aren't fair!" Yeah, the media doesn't like us. So what? They didn't like Reagan either, and he kept winning. Stop whining, leave the victimology to the Dems, and grow a pair.

11:27, JT brought sexy back, hypocrisy was too heavy to carry.

Can you assure JT that you do not object to, and may even applaud, coverage of say Al Gore's stupendous use of energy, T. Kennedy's objection to windfarms at the Cape, enviro-types private-jetting hither and yon, Birkenstock-no-gun-types who shoot intruders, and assorted liberal-no-private-school-vouchers-type who send their kids to private school?

JT finds that journalists should just stick to reporting relevant facts, say the party affiliation of any politician such as appears in every other story about a politician, and not let on about their pathetic political biases by omitting same when it's their guy getting embarrassed.

JT wonders if professional pride ever prompts a muckraker to consider avoiding the appearance of being a political operative.

"No, I'm saying that hypocrisy related to government corruption applies equally to both parties, which is why party affiliation is less central in stories about government corruption. Hypocrisy in sexual morality is more powerful with Republicans, because Democrats don't have much of a standard there to be hypocritical about."

Oh, I see. It's the type of hypocrisy you don't like, not the fact that politicos are hypocritical. Sexual morality, or lack thereof, has more bearing on the media's indication of party affiliation than whether one is corrupt, according to you. A ha. Now here this, media! We don't care that there is hypocrisy; we care about what kind of hypocrisy! Patently ludicrous.

"As to which party I favor, I'm actually a conservative and a Republican."

I don't care. You're still wrong.

"But I'm getting really tired of the way fellow conservatives of the Bill O'Reilly school have rushed to play the victim card themselves."

O'Reilly is a fool. And I'm not a conservative.

"Stop whining, leave the victimology to the Dems, and grow a pair."

When you can't back up your argument, it's always good to resort to issues of manhood, I like to say.

JT, yes, I applauded - in fact I chortled with delight - at media reports on Al Gore's amazing use of energy, and Teddy's objection to windfarms that might spoil his view and property values, errrrr, I mean, might be an environmental problem of, um, errr, some sort. Ditto for the libs with kids in private school. I don't remember any stories about Birkenstock-wearers blowing away intruders (though I did enjoy that Jodie Foster movie where she went postal after her fiance was killed by muggers), but I would welcome those stories too.

But enviro types private jetting hither and yon - that wouldn't include JT now, would it? I would not applaud that if I thought it might harsh your vibe, JT. We know JT can't always take public transport with the regular folks.

@1:10 - If you don't care, why did you ask?

I never asked about your party affiliation. It's beside the point.

Of course you didn't ask, 1:10/12:42/10:02, and obviously no one would ever suspect you of asking anything like "are you saying that you personally don't like the Rep variety of hypocrisy and that the Dem version is, to you, less offensive and deserving of media attention?" My mistake.

Similarly, there was massive sniper fire when the 1:10 plane landed in Bosnia, of course there was.

Could you possibly be any more literal when reading a rhetorical question, which, incidentally, was preceeded by an equally rhetorical question? I (still) don't care about your party affiliation; it has no bearing on the fact that your logic is muddled. If anything, the fact that you're a Rep demonstrates that it's not purely bias leading to your double standard; it's lack of sound reasoning.

Also, spare me the equivocation of your own inability to understand the use of rhetorical questions and Hilldog's lies about facts in Bosnia. Do you really believe that misinterpretation is the same as mistatment of factual truth? (No need to answer; purely rhetorical in nature.)

Do you really believe that "equivocation" refers to comparing two things and judging them equal? (No need to answer - this is a purely rhetorical question)

To invoke some memories for the old timers, I'll just say that this really is the "penultimate" in misuse of language. ;-)

Big Daddy Kwame you must resign! Let the city heel from all your foolishness!

Here are some fun kwame videos -

Party At The Manoogian

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0Hx36d9k-A

14,000 Texts Don't Lie

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8WWSU8y-ms&feature=related

Since you are all so perfect, maybe you should run for president! If you sell arms to the enemy ,you can just blame it on Alzheimer's or better yet, deny the fact that after millions you spent on "intelligence" stating there are no WMDs you are the first American president to invade a country. As for Kwame, don't blame all Dems, every group has idiots, and people need to be responsible for themselves.