Still spinning

At the end of Kwame Kilpatrick's lengthy interview in the most recent issue of Don Diva Magazine — "the original street bible" with a "Parental Advisory Gangsta Content" label — there is a plug for the ex-Detroit mayor's upcoming memoir.

The blurb promises that Surrendered will reveal "the truth behind his meteoric rise in politics, the crippling controversies surrounding his administration, his downfall and, ultimately, his redemption."

Now, we admittedly have only a passing familiarity with the theological concept of redemption, but it seems that a fundamental part of the process has to do with actual reform. You know, admitting to wrongdoing and deciding to change your ways.

The problem with that claim when it comes to Kilpatrick is that the guy is as truth-challenged ever. Just as we're not theologians, we're also not psychiatrists. But if KK isn't a textbook example of a pathological liar, then we'll eat a hardcover copy of Sigmund Freud's collected works.

The Don Diva interview — a few pages after the tastefully dubbed "Sticky Pages" featuring photos of buxom, scantily clad babes — contains everything from self-serving embellishments to full-blown whoppers so bizarre they had us scratching our heads and wondering if there was some major part of the Kilpatrick saga that we'd actually missed.

We'll start with just a few of the embellishments, like the Kwamster's claim that he was responsible for bringing Super Bowl XL to Detroit. The reality is that the NFL made the decision to locate the big game in Motown more than a year before Kilpatrick became mayor.

That's the thing about Kwame: He may be a prolific liar, but that doesn't make him a proficient one. In fact, Chapter 1 in the Liar's Handbook clearly states that you don't prevaricate about things that are easily proven to be untrue.

Likewise his claim that he was "responsible for finishing the Riverfront in Detroit." It takes about 38 seconds to call up the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy's website and learn that work on the eastern portion of the project is, even now, only about 75 percent complete and that work on the west side hasn't begun.

Asked by the magazine what he's actually in jail for, Kwame explains:

"Most of America doesn't even know what I am in jail for. In a deposition and in a trial I was asked three questions one minute changed my whole life. The trial wasn't even about the affair. I was called to testify in an auto accident case that involved the police because people were suing the city. I was called to testify because one of the employees was someone I appointed into their position and I had un-appointed him. I was on the stand for seven hours. For one minute of that time I was asked, did I send text messages to Christine Beatty [his chief of staff]. At the time I didn't know they had all the information and I lied. I lied about sending romantic text messages to my Chief of Staff."

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