A Stitch in Haste

Last week I blogged about Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's asinine proposal to levy a 2% tax on all food served in fast-food restaurants, even salads. The proposed tax would not be to fund health care or anti-obesity program, but just to feed the maw of the city's general budget.

Well, now we know why Detroit needs all that new tax revenue.

Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick wrote a check to his cash-strapped city Tuesday for nearly $9,000 in purchases charged to his city-issued credit card, seeking to diffuse criticism for expenses that included visits to a spa and a nightclub.
...
Kilpatrick promised Monday to make the payment in response to questions by the Detroit Free Press, which obtained his credit card statements from the city's auditor general.

The records showed that Kilpatrick charged at least $210,000 for travel, meals, an $85 bottle of champagne and other items over nearly three years.

Kilpatrick has defended the spending as a necessary part of his efforts to promote Detroit and encourage economic development.

Among the charges were a $265 visit to a spa for Kilpatrick and a bodyguard during a 2002 trip to Las Vegas; $836 in hotel charges in New Orleans for his sister; and $946 in charges at Dream, a Washington night club.

As I've said repeatedly in the context of gay rights and the nonsense about (unelected) "activist judges," why exactly are (elected) hack politicians presumed to be better arbiters of what is right and what is wrong?

I'd sooner place my fate in the hands of an unelected activist judge over an elected local hack politician or an elected activist legislature any day.