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Why won’t he just give in? Governor Jennifer Granholm just started the hearing to remove Kwame Kilpatrick from the mayor’s office today. It is unbelievable that he still has not resigned despite all the pain and embarrassment he has put Detroit and the rest of Michigan through, not to mention the stagnation he has brought to the city’s and region’s growth and development ever since the whole scandal erupted.
From the New York Times, we know the power Gov. Granholm wields in these proceedings (and perhaps, her readiness to drop the hammer):
To find that Mr. Kilpatrick did abuse the powers of his office, Ms. Granholm said she needed only to be persuaded to a point that she found "sufficient" given the evidence presented. She did not define what sufficient evidence would be, other than to say that it would be enough to satisfy "an unprejudiced mind seeking the truth."
A three-judge panel of the Michigan Court of Appeals ruled on Tuesday that the governor could proceed with the hearing. Under the state’s Constitution, Ms. Granholm has the power to remove Mr. Kilpatrick from office.
Only to a ’sufficient’ extent? Kwame’s tough team criticizes the criteria that the Governor outlines, but gets shut down immediately. From the same source:
Mr. Kilpatrick’s legal team had objected in court on Tuesday to the standard Ms. Granholm would use to decide Mr. Kilpatrick’s fate.
"Your Honor, I know what a preponderance of evidence is, I know what beyond a reasonable doubt is," Mr. Thomas told the presiding appellate judge, Christopher M. Murray. But as a threshold of proof, Mr. Thomas said, " ‘sufficient’ is too vague."
A lawyer for Ms. Granholm, John Wernet, brushed aside Mr. Thomas’s claims as "without any foundation in law or fact."
Personally, I know that ’sufficient’ is beyond appropriate. There is far more than ’sufficient’ evidence that even if all the charges magically disappear, he is not fit for being the city mayor. There is too much antagonism he creates in his own city, too far of a reversal of the marginal progress Detroit has ever made in recent years, and too little care for city businesses.
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