Acquitted

Katherine Shields has been acquitted on the thin soup of a mortgage fraud charge that was filed by one of Gonzo’s replacement minions in an effort to derail her political career.

Bradley Schlozman, political hack and Loyal Bushie, amoral sleazebag and smarmy fuck extraordinaire – rode into Kansas City as an unconfirmed United States Attorney in March of 2006. He immediately set about meddling with the electoral process in an effort to influence elections and undermine Democrats in the Democratic strongholds of Jackson County/KCMO and St. Louis.

First, in a thinly disguised attempt to help Jim Talent retain his Senate seat against Democratic challenger Claire McCaskill, he filed the charges against four ACORN employees who falsified a couple of voter registration cards (no fraudulent votes were cast and would not have been, even if no charges had been filed.) Department of Justice guidelines state explicitly that charges should not be filed until after elections when the filing could influence the outcome (innocent until proven guilty and all that).

He ignored protocol because he wasn’t here to serve Justice. He was here to spurn Justice. He was here to use the Department of Justice to help the Republican party in the states Democratic strongholds. Period.

And while the outcry over the ACORN charges was still echoing off the tall buildings downtown, the bastard turned around and did it again! He filed a mortgage fraud charge against two-term Jackson County Executive Katherine Shields, and brought the specious charges against her while she was conducting a mayoral campaign.

As soon as the charges were filed, her campaign tanked. She finished the primary far back in the pack, after what started out a tight three-way race. The runoff was held six weeks later, and the contest was between former City Auditor Mark Funkhouser and Mayor Pro Tem Alvin Brooks. Our son was so pissed, he voted for her anyway, as a write-in candidate. My candidate prevailed and is now the Mayor of the city I have grown to love – but Schlozman’s tampering with the electoral process cheapens that victory to fire-sale prices.

And today, she and her husband were acquitted on all charges. The two other defendants, who originated the scheme, were found guilty.

Now…What will the future hold? Will she reclaim her place in Democratic politics on this side of the state? She was long considered an up-and-comer in the Democratic Party – that is, she was – before she was slandered, slurred and prosecuted for the crime of being a star in Democratic politics in the bluest part of a red state. It was just a given that she would be sent to Jeff City or Washington D.C. at some point in the near future to continue representing us at a higher level.

As she exited the courthouse after the verdict was announced, she was loath to speculate on what the future holds for her politically. Whatever the future holds for her, this blogger wishes her all the best, and congratulates her on the verdict. And prays to a God she doesn’t believe in that we have seen the end of political persecution of Democrats by the Department of “Just Us” in an attempt to help the whiny, sniveling, pathetic, hapless losers of the GOP.