Kwame Kilpatrick, come out, come out wherever you are

Jason Sandford

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

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Where, oh where, is Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick?

More than a week after his last public appearance here in Asheville at the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Breakfast, the embattled mayor remains out of sight.

The Detroit media is camped out outside his mayoral mansion. Detroit residents are calling for his resignation. Somebody’s selling “Where’s Kwame?” T-shirts on ebay. Meantime, everybody waits.

Here’s one account of what’s happening from the Detroit News:

DETROIT – Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick met with key advisers at the Manoogian Mansion on Monday contemplating how to respond to the growing questions about his behavior, but gave no indication when he might come out and speak to the residents of Detroit.

Cars and people came and went as television trucks, reporters and photographers staked out the city-owned mansion.

About 1 p.m., an unidentified man dropped off Mountain Dew and bags of carryout from the Chicken Shack. The mayor’s father and political confidante, Bernard Kilpatrick, also toted in a plate of food and pop.

Kilpatrick’s last public appearance was at a Martin Luther King Jr. event in Asheville, N.C., a week ago. Among those events he has scrapped since the text messaging scandal broke were scheduled appearances at the National Conference of Mayors meeting in Washington, where he was to speak on the crisis in home foreclosures. He didn’t attend services at his church Sunday.

He also customarily attends the governor’s annual State of the State address, which is at 7 tonight. There was no immediate word as to whether he would be there.

The other big question that’s yet to be answered: Who is “Carmen Slowski”? That was the name of the woman on Grove Park Inn paperwork that apparently had a couple’s massage and whirlpool bath with the good mayor during his stay here in Asheville.