There’s simply no question that Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick should resign his post as mayor of the city of Detroit.

Kilpatrick’s public philandering, as bad as it is, is no surprise.  But public officials are expected, are elected, to uphold the law and to set high moral standards.  We expect our public officials to be people our children can look up to.  Just because other officials, all the way up to our heads of state, are known for their philandering, doesn’t mean anyone should really get away with it.

Kwame Kilpatrick

If an illicit affair was all that was involved, an acknowledgment and an apology would suffice. For the public, anyway. But Mrs. Kilpatrick’s televised pleas that this is all a personal matter that should be worked out in private, is nonsense.

The problem is Kilpatrick’s use of public money and resources, not just to facilitate his affairs, but to conduct a widespread cover up following a whistleblower case involving two Detroit police officers who charged the mayor with using city resources to aid and abet his illicit activity.

Worst of all is his lying under oath about his actions.  Both Kilpatrick and his chief of staff, Christine Beatty, denied under oath that they had had an illicit affair and that the firing of the police officers was related to  the affair. Perjury is a felony in Michigan.

Everyone was duped. The quick and dirty deal to settle the whistleblower case was intended to prevent the release of text messages that confirmed the affair and its ties to the firing of the police officers.  No matter how this is resolved, how could anyone ever trust Kilpatrick again?