Remember back in October 2003, when the Philly mayoral race between incumbent Mayor John Street (D) and his 2000 opponent businessman Sam Katz (R), and it was revealed that the FBI had wiretapped his office.
The revelation actually invoked sympathy for the mayor and outrage towards the federal government in the Philadelphia black community, and helped Street win reelection. I am no fan of Mayor Street. I believe he is corrupt and incompetent at the same time, much like President Bush and Vice President Cheney. I believe also that Mayor Street was the one that found out about the investigation and revealed the wiretap himself, so as to garner support (he was neck and neck with Katz at the time).
Well now, the investigation has yielded its first indictments. (Free registeration is required). Excerpts from the article are in the extended copy:
In a brutally frank exposure of the city's pay-to-play culture, federal prosecutors yesterday accused power broker Ronald A. White and the city's former treasurer of plundering city government for their own profit, and also said Mayor Street is not likely to face charges.
The 150-page indictment quotes extensively from months of FBI wiretaps to make a case that White virtually bought the office of city treasurer.
It says that White, 54, showered then-Treasurer Corey Kemp, 34, with cash, a free deck on his house, free jet rides, and tickets to a Super Bowl and NBA All-Star Game.
In return, Kemp steered hundreds of thousands of dollars in city business to White, a woman federal prosecutors called White's paramour, and clients who had hired White for his influence.
The indictment also charged White's girlfriend, two senior executives of Commerce Bank, two former investment bankers with J.P. Morgan, and a Detroit businessman who the authorities said had secretly funneled money to Kemp.
A total of 12 people were charged. U.S. Attorney Patrick L. Meehan said the indictment revealed an unchecked political system "that breeds corruption."
But the indictment contains only a single - if sharp - criticism of the mayor.
It asserted that Street had "instructed his staff that, if White or firms he touted appeared to be qualified, the staff members should award the City business White sought, and provide White with inside information he sought regarding the operations of City agencies otherwise unavailable to the public."
Meehan said he would not discuss what evidence supported that assertion. None was contained in the indictment.
And despite the reams of tape accumulated in the investigation, the mayor is never quoted from any wiretap in the indictment.
Meehan did say that "the mayor allowed White to wield the power, a corrupt power, that he did."
But Meehan went on to caution: "That is not to say the mayor committed a crime in doing so... . Nothing in this indictment should be read to suggest he is likely to be charged."
It occurs to me Vice President Cheney is as at least as culpable, if not more so, in the same fashion. It is clear the Vice President wanted Halliburton and it subsidiary companies to be considered for any project first and most times without any other bidder.
Therefore, as I will now say to my Republican friends: "You can't complain about Mayor Street and defend Vice President Cheney at the same time. They both did the same thing." Their heads should explode.