The feds aren’t messing around when they tag a public official with RICO charges. That’s the big gun they’ve pulled out on former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick.

From the looks of it, they have a whole lot against him: text messages (again!); swank trips to Vegas, the Hamptons and the Bahamas; extortion of city contractors; kickbacks. Pretty much all the tricks of big city corruption rolled into one case.

David Kurtz

David Kurtz is Managing Editor and Washington Bureau Chief of Talking Points Memo where he oversees the news operations of TPM and its sister sites.