Kwame's Minima Mea Culpa Points Out His Most Grievous Fault

In Detroit for the last two weeks both major daily newspapers have formed a solid front against the to-be-expected counteroffensive of lies coming from the Kilpatrick administration. The counteroffensive has come, and any wavering on the part of the media will risk Kilpatrick slipping past and revising history overnight.

Today’s editorial “Quick Hit” in the Detroit News, ("Kilpatrick recognizes why he's in mess"), is a worrisome crack in that solid front. Referring to the Mayor’s hour-long radio interview with Frankie Darcel on MIX 92.3 Friday, the editorial asks readers to, “Give the mayor credit for continuing to recognize that it was he who triggered the chain of events that now has him defending himself against allegations of a cover-up.”

Continuing to recognize his responsibility? That’s what we’re all still waiting for him to start doing. The Mayor has never recognized his role in the scandal that now engulfs him (it's his own fault 100%--the philandering, the misuse of city resources, the targeting of honorable cops for destruction, the wasting of city funds, and the cover-up). Nor was his Friday interview any different from his other self-serving public statements since the scandal of the text messages broke. His staged apology from church the Wednesday before allowed to him to take credit for nothing in particular--except caring too much for the city he loves.

Here are only a few of the statements Kingpin made in his Friday interview. Not only is Kilpatrick not continuing to recognize his responsibility, (because he never begins) he manages to cast the blame for his current troubles on one judge for illegal activity, on another for overthrowing Michigan law and the Constitution, on the jury (and the enitre SE Michigan region) for being racist and vindictive against him because he's black, (as were the plaintiffs), on the attorneys, and especially on the Detroit Free Press, whom he repeatedly charges with criminal activity by obtaining the text records "illegally.":

• the recent things is the text messages, which were, you know, illegally obtained from the Free Press and, you know, now the whole paper now is covering up their illegal act with a lot of criminal activity and collusion in writing these reports.


• MS. DARCELL: Was there a cover-up? MAYOR KILPATRICK: Oh, no. MS. DARCELL: Is there a cover-up by your administration? MAYOR KILPATRICK: Absolutely not.
  
• I went to court and fought on the employment issue that this was not a whistleblower action. I lost. The $9 million dollars, or 8.4 million dollars comes from the jury. It's like I gave 9 million -- the jury decided the biggest settlement -- remember the makeup of the jury, remember the political nature of this case, they decided that that -- it was the plaintiff's decision, not me.


• the Free Press after the case was over, they obviously had some meetings, and I think that they ought to answer to.


• There cannot be any legal process that gave them records. And lastly -- lastly, the only person who legally had these records was the judge.


• MS. DARCELL: That has become a question. Are you suggesting then, Mr. Mayor, that they obtained the documents illegally --MAYOR KILPATRICK: Absolutely.
  
• Yes, yes. If they got them from the judge, both of those things are illegal.


• They're throwing out a lot of issue in the front page of their paper to get these things public so they can have justification for their illegal activities.


• There was no secret deal.,,, The reason why it's public now is because the Free Press, I don't want people to lose sight of this, the Free Press illegally obtained some very private phone conversations…. And so what they have now done is illegally obtained some information, and so what they're trying to do now is muddy everything up together, so they can have justification for going after that illegally. And if people are not watching this, then they can go after your stuff in the same way. Send in a legal subpoena, go in the back room with the judge, go to a lawyer's office.

• [Judge Colombo’s decision to release secret agreement and the text files] violates every Michigan Court Rules that's ever been known to man, and we think it's wrong….I mean, this is one of the most protected processes under the law, and we need to keep that it way. Because Kwame Kilpatrick is a political figure that a lot of folk don't like, you can't violate the Constitution, the Michigan Court Rules, and everybody else.

• my constitutional rights were violated, at best. At worst, and some of the other things it means, is that there's some real serious federal and state laws that have been violated here. There's a serious breach of contract issue with the plaintiff's attorney that is at issue here.


• And let me just say one more thing about that civil documents. This is a very serious issue. Because it's not about Kwame Kilpatrick. It puzzles me. Councilwoman Joanne Watson has been doing all of those protests against the Wayne County Circuit Court, the jury pool, the judge's decision, how they operate over there, but when it comes to me it's a little different. There's some serious questions about how that court is run, about how Detroiters get justice at that court, and I believe that at the end of this, I just believe with all of my heart that God didn't bring me here to leave me here.


• Because you've got to learn from not only your own mistakes, but the mistakes of others. And I made plenty, I'm not putting that the side. But at the same time, there's some things that I have to stand on as truth. And so I feel like, yeah, they finally got me, but they got me because of me. They got me because of me. And so this particular pickle that I'm in right now, for lack of a better expression, yeah, I do share some accountability in it, but there are some things that have been done by people who want to violate laws, want to do illegal things, violate court rules, that have never been sanctioned, never been questioned, violate constitutional rights, civil rights, do illegal things, and that has to be checked. Because at the end of the day it's not about me only. It's about the people of this community, make no mistake.


• I think the way that we get off the front page now is the Free Press has to start being honest with the people who purchase it.


• I don't think the media has been unfair. I think the Free Press has committed a crime, I believe they committed a crime. I think that they are -- and now, I read the editorial today from Steven Henderson, he's lumping everything together, so now their paper is involved in covering up their criminal activity. And so that's what I believe.
  
• What I don't expect is our paper to be in collusion with whomever to bring people down with illegal activity. I don't expect that. I don't expect two reporters, Schaefer and Elrick, to go out and go in backroom deals and meet. I don't expect for them to obtain illegal information to try to use it to bring people down illegally. I expect that there's something in the newspapers at least to guide the ethical rules that we have to follow, and if you have questions based on that, we'll come and answer it. What's happening now with our Free Press is something that I've never seen before. And I believe it's a national story.
  
• MS. DARCELL: How do you respond to people who say that relative to the jury's award and the 9 million? How do you -- you know, when you say something you're responsible for, do you feel responsible for that? MAYOR KILPATRICK: I don't. I don't. I feel that the jury erred, I feel that the case was not decided on any facts based in employment law, any facts based in the whistleblower. It is what it is. That case could have been up to $11 million dollars if it would not have settled.
  
• The jury substantially erred….The court trial was never about that, and it was decided based on no legitimate facts dealing with any material issues, but it was about me, Kwame Kilpatrick, and the relationship that that jury and this region has with me.

Kwame's always ready to admits he's guilty of unspecified mistakes, (hey, nobody's perfect), for which he should be promptly forgiven and immediately allowed to resume his Divine assignment without further questions asked. At the same time, his perceived enemies are guilty of illegal activities, judicial malfeasance, and crimes, for which there must be a full divine accounting. It would be hilarious if he weren't actually going to get people to believe him.