Looks like the race card didn’t work. Three people, including Philadelphia’s former treasurer, were found guilty in a big city corruption case, Associated Press reports:

Philadelphia’s former treasurer was convicted Monday of more than 20 counts for taking free trips, Super Bowl tickets and other lavish gifts from people seeking city contracts.

Jurors reached the verdicts on their 19th day of deliberations in the case, which stemmed from a wide-ranging federal probe of municipal corruption.

Corey Kemp, the former treasurer, was charged with corrupting his office by accepting thousands of dollars worth of gifts from a lawyer and prolific Democratic fundraiser named Ronald A. White. Investigators said Kemp got a new deck for his house, an all-expenses paid trip to see the 2003 Super Bowl, free meals and parties in his honor, along with $10,000.

The investigation made headlines on Oct. 7, 2003, when city police discovered a listening device that FBI agents had hidden above the desk of Mayor John F. Street. The mayor was not charged.

Two Commerce Bank executives, Stephen Umbrell and Glenn Holck, were accused of participating in the scheme to corrupt Kemp by arranging for their bank to overlook his bad credit history and give him a mortgage equal to 100% of the value of his new home.

All three were convicted of the main conspiracy charge. Two other co-defendants, Detroit businessman La-Van Hawkins and White’s mistress, Janice Knight, were acquitted of that charge but convicted of lesser charges.

Hawkins was convicted of perjury and Knight was found guilty of misusing public welfare-to-work money and making false statements.

In the fall of 2003, Philadelphia Mayor John Street and other Democrats asserted that U.S. Attorney Patrick Meehan’s investigation into corruption at City Hall was racially and politically motivated. Courtesy of Michael Smerconish, here are some choice quotes:

His Honor [Mayor Street] on the “Today” show: “I think there will continue to be a huge amount of speculation and concern that some of this is racially motivated.”

Mme. Hillary in a campaign appearance for Street: “It is a puzzle that we would be close to an election and have these charges being hurled.”

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi came to Philadelphia and said she had “serious questions” about the Bush administration’s possible role in the investigation.

Ragin’ Cajun Carville: “You decide your future. You don’t turn it over to John Ashcroft.”

DNC head McAuliffe: “You know what they did to get power, imagine what they’ll do to keep it.”

Mayoral spokesman Frank Keel: “Do we believe that it is out of the realm of possibility to have been perpetrated by the national Republican Party to help Katz and Bush? We believe it is absolutely within the realm of possibility.”

Then there was the Rev. Robert Shine, president of the Black Clergy of Philadelphia. In a sermon he called the investigation a “deliberate effort to smear” the mayor, and it was all about winning Pennsylvania for Bush in ‘04. “That is… the diabolical goal of the opposition party,” Shine was quoted as saying.

State Rep. James Roebuck: “People remember Hoover and Martin Luther King. The kinds of tactics the FBI used during the most heated period of the civil rights period was designed not to investigate the Klan but to undermine the civil rights movement.”

U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah: “Now, in the 11th hour of tough campaign, the Republicans here and in Washington have placed a cloud over our mayor with outrageous tactics and shameful leaks.”

Now that a jury has convicted Kemp and two of his associates, the Democrats owe Meehan an apology. I have a feeling he’ll be waiting a long time.

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