Kwame Kilpatrick Needs To Step Down (and go to the Free Clinic)

Yeah, I'm still on hiatus from politricks. And yeah, it's killing me to not be able to blog about the botched abortion that was Rudy 4 Prez, Bill's "so what? Jesse Jackson won SC too" diss, or the way Obama cold carried Hillary at the State of the Union Address the other night. But reality is, I'm still very much burned out on this whole election nonsense, and need another week at least before I jump back on the wagon. I'll see ya'll come Super Tuesday. If you need a politricks fix in the meantime, peep my man The Human Resource over at StartSnitching. He delivers the kind of blunt, fact-filled political analysis I wanna slang one day when I grow up.

So while my favorite topic is off limits, my next favorite topic, talkin' reckless about general examples of Extreme Niggadom is not. And now meet Exhibit A: Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick.

Just last week, I bought you the story of our sullied hip-hop mayor, who has himself in some major trouble right now. Kwame, who is married, was carrying on an affair with his chief of staff (also married, but who cares?), fired a police whistle blower who was threatening to expose the affair and other general corruption, lied under oath during the successful ($9M judgement) civil trial filed by this whistle blower, and had his business exposed to the world when thousands of text messages exchanged with his paramour were made public last week.

So, imagine you're Kilpatrick and in the midst of this self-manufactured hailstorm? What do you do next?

A. Assemble your fam for a contrived press conference/photo-op, and gracefully quit your Day Job to "spend more time with the wife and kids"?

B. Go to church (followed by TV cameras and reporters) to ask/beg/cry for forgiveness?

C. Find yourself another jumpoff who's (presumably) far more discreet, and stay the hell off your city-issued Blackberry?

If you answered either B or C, pat yourself on the back and break out the Capri Suns. A? Not so much.

I couldn't even begin to put myself in Kwame's shoes, but one thing I know I'd be doing in laying low till this whole thing bubbles over and calling my divorce attorney. This dude is bout' to get reamed in court. But in the true vein of Nigga Nonsense, look what this swole-up Chris Webber-lookin' bama goes and does instead.

Reports that Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick had a woman other than his wife with him at the Grove Park Inn before speaking at the Martin Luther King Prayer Breakfast left event organizers disappointed Friday.

Detroit television station WXYZ aired a report Friday that the mayor had been with a woman who called herself Carmen Slowsky and that the two had enjoyed champagne and a whirlpool bath together at a cost of more than $500.

A copy of the hotel invoice shows a stay arranged for two.

Yes folks, your tax dollars at work. I sure hope he used some of that city money to buy some prophylactics.

Some of you openly ask why I often seem to badmouth public figures, particularly black ones, for presumably no good reason. I hate saying something so trite, but reality is, I throw this kinda stuff out there because we have to do better. Maybe putting folks on blast will somehow discourage others from repeating their very public mistakes. Then again, if Kilpatrick was paying attention to his mayoral forefathers like Marion Barry, Sharpe James, and Bill Campbell, he might have avoided this fate. Then again, maybe not.

Kilpatrick was born into a life of privilege and favor, mostly due to his family legacy in Michigan politics. He was given the world on a platter and he handed it back, covered in loose dollar bills and 3rd rate hotel key cards. The question is, why?

Kilpatrick is already suffering a major fallout behind all this. His alma mater, Florida A&M, asked him to step down from it's foundation board. Citizens of Day-Twa are calling for his head on a platter. He could still eventually go to jail, but tomorrow he'll visit a Detroit church to "break his silence" about the whole ordeal. I can't wait to see the Youtube of that one.

For being a colossal f*ckup, ruining his family's name, and making the city of Detroit even more of a national laughingstock than it already was, there's really only one thing Kilpatrick can do next.

Step down, Kwame.

[Question: Why would a man like Kilpatrick, who seemingly had it all, throw it all away so callously?]

Detroit mayor’s reported tryst saddens King event organizers [Asheville Citizen-Times]

Kilpatrick expected to break silence Wednesday night [Detroit Free Press]