SCARE TACTICS

Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, once the darling of the DLC and hailed as the mayor of the "hip hop" generation, has been mired in a scandal that is a tragedy for the struggling Motor City but a farce for everyone else. I won't rehearse the whole sordid story of a covered-up affair, "hear no evil, see no evil" police protection, the politically-motivated firing of whistleblowers, $9 million misspent city dollars on a losing court case, blatant perjury, bail skipping, and cop-shoving. Kilpatrick should have stepped aside long ago, for the sake of his constituents and his city.

But Kwame is now the unwitting tool of a group of politicians even slimier than he is. The Tennessee Republican Party is running an ad linking Barack Obama with the troubled mayor. Why should Tennessee residents care about the mayor of a far away city with only a nominal association with the presidential candidate? Call it one small dose of guilt by association and three big doses of "scary black man" race-mongering. This is appalling stuff. Expect worse to come.