A Hearing In Detroit

Every silver lining has an ominous cloud, and depending on the outcome of today's ouster hearing in Detroit for Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, if it is held today over Kwame's legal objections, there is one hugely ominous, brawling, argumentative, insulting, pandering, misguided, obnoxious, and corrupt cloud sitting just a chair or two down from Ken Cockrel, Jr.

Monica Conyers could become city council president.

If the hearing, presided over by Governor Granholm, should result in the removal of Kilpatrick from office (the silver lining,) Cockrel would become Mayor and Conyers would assume Cockrel's duties--perhaps soon enough to score herself another drink by fisticuff before early afternoon. Hey, a promotion is a promotion.

That should do wonders for the reputation of Detroit that has been a national laughingstock since Coleman Young took the oath of mayor decades ago. The respectable administration of Dennis Archer appears now to have been only a blip on the screen, sandwiched between the administrations of two of the most corrupt and self serving cronies to have ever abused power on the banks of the Detroit.

Should Ken Cockrel become mayor it will be his duty to remove dozens if not more of Kilpatrick's closest advisers, lubricate the operations of a machine that is so inefficient that it is years behind in mandatory reports due to the state, put a hold on many suspect city contracts, and keep an eye on the new city council president who is so much like Kilpatrick that she simply oozes poor judgment. Cockrel and Conyers have been at odds for months already, and the ouster of Kilpatrick does not mean that a new era of understanding and cooperation will permeate the oversight of Detroit.

Getting rid of Kilpatrick by the Governor would be a huge step in the right direction, but true reform will only occur if that big step is followed by hundreds of smaller ones. Cockrel and Conyers will be even more in the spotlight than they have ever been.

My advice to Cockrel? Send Conyers to a local hotel nightclub with only enough money to buy one strong drink. He can take his first few steps before the dust ever settles.