Alan Greenblatt is a GOVERNING correspondent.
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Kwame Kilpatrick, Detroit's text-happy mayor, has lost the support of his city, conventioneers, the city council and prosecutors. Why does he vow to stay in office and keep fighting?
I wrote about this type of scenario a couple of years ago, looking at several other embattled local officials who didn't know when to say when:
Why do public officials stay on board, even after they've given everyone else a headache? They may be innocent, and they deserve every chance to make that case, but often they simply put themselves and their constituents through needless angst, only to be humiliated in the end anyway. In the interim, they cling to office as if every additional day were a divine gift. It's too bad. Establishing culpability is one issue, but there's always more to keeping the public trust than simple legal guilt.
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