DETROIT — Mayor Kwame M. Kilpatrick was charged on Monday with misconduct in office, obstruction of justice, conspiracy to commit obstruction of justice and perjury, felonies that could end his political career and send him to prison for as long as 80 years.

Among the eight felony counts against him, Mr. Kilpatrick is accused of authorizing the city of Detroit to settle an $8.4 million lawsuit with several former police officers “with the corrupt motive” of preventing the release of text messages which would have revealed that he had lied under oath in the case, the charging documents say.

The New York Times

After months and months of high profile Republican scandals I guess the Democrats were getting jealous and wanted a piece of the action.  First Spitzer, then Paterson (a work in progress) and now Kwame.  Will the fine citizens of Detroit learn anything from this?  Not if history is any indicator.  They will more than likely replace Kwame with another corrupt politico molded from the same machine and Detroit will continue its slow decline to the tenth level of Hell.

The city actually had a decent mayor in Dennis Archer, the man Kilpatrick succeeded.  He had a law degree, held a seat on the Michigan State Supreme Court,  and as mayor did a lot of reaching out to the suburban and business communities in the region to work to repair the city’s image and bring about a return of the thriving metropolis the city once was.  Naturally, Archer was ridiculed for his positive ideas for change and labeled a “white black man” by many city residents.  Archer declined to run for reelection in 2001 and Kwame is the result.  Progression and change lost to ignorance and bigotry and today Detroit  remains a broken shell of its former self.