AP Finally Names Detroit Mayor's Party -- To Faciliate 'Playing Politics' Charge Aimed at GOP AG

As the latest episode of Detroit's Kwame Kilpatrick Calamity has played out, we learn that there is a supplemental directive to add to the Associated Press's apparent commandment ("Thou shalt not name a Democrat's party") about politicians in trouble whose party mascot happens to be the donkey.

Several previous Kilpatrick-related AP reports, including this one from two weeks ago, have been cited at NewsBusters and elsewhere as examples of how closely that commandment is followed.

But in this evening's report by the AP's Ed White, you'll see that there is an important exception (bold is mine):

Mich. AG: Detroit mayor violated bail terms again

A prosecutor on Monday accused Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick of violating his bond in an assault case by spending time over the weekend with his sister, one of 11 witnesses listed by authorities.

Kilpatrick and Ayanna Kilpatrick were together at their mother's house Saturday, a day after he was released from jail for violating bond in a separate perjury case, said Doug Baker of the Michigan attorney general's office.

The mayor is charged with assaulting two investigators who were trying to deliver a subpoena at his sister's house in July in the perjury case.

In a court filing, Baker said the mayor had been ordered to have no contact with witnesses.

Kilpatrick's defense team, however, believes the mayor is not in trouble. Attorney Jim Thomas said Magistrate Renee McDuffee clarified Friday that Kilpatrick could have contact with his sister.

In a statement, Kilpatrick spokesman Marcus Reese accused state Attorney General Mike Cox, a Republican, of trying to score political points with the latest filing against the embattled Democratic mayor.

The complete rule appears to be "Thou shalt not name a Democrat's party, unless it helps you facilitate an attack on a Republican."

Separate from the media bias angle, it would appear to do the Democrats, especially presumptive nominee Barack Obama, no good to have Kilpatrick still hanging around in November. Politico's Glenn Thrush lists the situation in Michigan as the third of "7 worrisome signs for Obama" in his quest for electoral victory:

Michigan’s in play for McCain. In the year of the downturn, the hard-hit upper Midwest should be prime Obama country. Instead it’s a potential minefield. Obama is still ahead by two to five points there — similar to margins of victory enjoyed by Gore and Kerry in the last two presidential contests — but McCain has quietly crept up over the past month and could vault ahead if he anoints ex-Gov. Mitt Romney as his running mate. Simmering tensions between predominantly black Detroit and its white suburbs could hurt Obama. And McCain’s surrogates were handed a gift in the jailing of Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, an Obama supporter.

I would think that the longer the Kilpatrick saga drags on, the worse it is for Obama, regardless of whether or not McCain picks Romney (disclosure: I strongly oppose Romney's selection by McCain).

It's probably time for someone at AP to remind Ed White of a different, and even more important, wire service commandment: "Thou shalt not provide aid and comfort to an offending Democrat if his or her continued presence hurts the electoral prospects of other Democrats further up the ticket."

Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.