A sentencing hearing yesterday sealed the fate of Detroit's disgraced former mayor, Kwame Kilpatrick. He was led to jail to spend 120 days there as part of a plea deal that forced him to resign as mayor and plead guilty to two felonies. The judge had a few words for him before she sent him away. She didn't much like a speech he gave during a news conference after he pleaded guilty in September — after blaming everyone else for his downfall, he said, "Y'all done set me up for a comeback."

“That night the community expected to hear a message of humility, remorse and apology,” the judge told Kilpatrick on Tuesday. “Instead, we heard an arrogant and defiant man who accused the governor, among others, for his downfall. Your statements were incredible given the fact that you had just pled guilty.”

And with that, the book closed on Kilpatrick. The court received 17 written requests for leniency on Kilpatrick's behalf. It looks like the rest of Detroit's millions decided to sit this one out. [DFP]

Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick will go down in history with a too-long list of scandal-plagued local and state politicians, many of whom relied on racial politics to win office and subsequently play their constituents against one another. But, these days, for every Kwame Kilpatrick, who stuck to old school, unproductive politics and sloppy leadership despite his age and promise, there's a Cory Booker or an Adrian Fenty, who, like them or not, are turning over a different page. Part of the "Barack Obama" school, there is a handful of these rising black politicians who have been lauded in news magazines and on television for reaching across racial lines to get elected and get things done. After the jump, read about a few of them… and pray that none of them gets caught in salacious text messaging scandals. Something tells me these guys know better.

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Kwame Kilpatrick might be the only person in Detroit who is either surprised or dismayed that he wasn't able to finagle a more friendly plea deal from the fed-up prosecutors in his fed-up city. The mayor, who was facing 8 felony charges in relation to a perjury scandal involving an extramarital affiar, wanted a deal that would require him to plead guilty to two felonies, step down from office and pay a six-figure fine in order to avoid jail time. What he ended up getting was a lot more serious than that.

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In his infinite wisdom, Kwame Kilpatrick has decided to broker a plea deal, offering to give up his position as mayor, plead guilty to two felonies (out of eight), do 300 hours of community service, and pay a six-figure fine in exchange for no jail time. The prosecutor, who wants to throw the mayor in jail, is not quite amenable to the deal. Meanwhile, a judge will decide today if Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm can, at the City Council's request, begin hearings tomorrow to decide whether or not to remove Kilpatrick from office. Either way, he's out of the mayor's office eventually… but will he be able to avoid spending time behind bars? [DN]

Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick is an idiot. This much we've known for quite a while. But as time passes, the sheer magnitude of his idiocy seems to grow exponentially. After being charged with 8 felonies related to lies he told under oath about his affair with his Chief of Staff, Christine Beatty, Kilpatrick has violated the terms of his bond by leaving the country without prior notice and allegedly assaulting the officials who served him a subpoena last week. He showed up in court today to plead and grovel, but, it didn't exactly work. The judge sent him to jail until he pays the $75,000 bond or his lawyers convince a judge to overturn the ruling.

Its unclear who will run the city in Kilpatrick's absence, since there is currently no deputy mayor. It's probably no biggie to the citizens of Detroit or city officials — there hasn't been a real mayor there in quite a while. [DFP]

• Maybe the Game needs some help? [Jossip]

• Rihanna wears jewelry. On her fingers. [Sun]

• Kwame Kilpatrick's lying, philandering ways may have helped ruined mama's political career. [JJP]

• A new lawsuit highlights a rift between blacks and gays in the DNC. [N&V]

• Who doesn't have a reality show these days? [CL]

• Rihanna unleashes the video for "Disturbia," in which she wears different wigs and contact lenses and acts creepy. [CL]

• And here's a new video from Robin Thicke for good measure. [C&D]

• For every journalist who wants to denigrate Michelle Obama, there's one who has her back. Hard. [JJP]

• Will Detroit go from Hip Hop Mayor to NBA Mayor? [BV]

• If you're in the market for a new Jag that was driven by a deceased hip hop legend, eBay's got it. [EUR]

SEE YA, KWAME At long last, the Detroit City Council, which, let's face it, has its own serious issues, voted today to ask the mayor of Michigan to remove disgraced mayor Kwame Kilpatrick from office. The council previously demanded that Kilpatrick resign, but he stupidly resisted. Now this. “It’s another meaningless gesture on their part,” said the city's deputy mayor of the council's decision. [The mayor] was elected by the voters of the city. He was not elected by the Council.” [NYT]

As if the numerous indictments thrown at Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and his ex-lover, ex-Chief of Staff Christine Beatty weren't enough, the Detroit Free Press has uncovered many, many, many more pages of illicit texts they sent each other on their city-issue cell phones. They've pulled a few choice excerpts over at What About Our Daughters. The texts really embarrassing, particularly for Beatty, who, after she and her husband split up, begins to rightly suspect that he was never going to leave his wife and was just talking shit during poorly-spelled exchanges like this one:

CB:"My baby wanted to see you. I was just trying to make it happen before we went to the dentist"
KK:"Come on Momma"
CB: "Thanks for that"
KK: I enjoy that. I might be their stepdad one day
CB:Why might? What happened to "not yet"?
KK: The "might is on you"
CB: LOL Nigga, I already claimed it! KCK 2010. You told me that you would be my boyfriend everyday until I was your wife. Are you renigging?
KK:Hell no! Don't start none. Won't be none niggette! LOL
He later signs off with "My nigga! I love you, you know that."

If they weren't shady, law-breaking public figures without the good sense to keep their private affair private or at least own up to it when they got caught, I would feel a lot more sorry for them.

A Detroit City Council meeting yesterday turned into a soap opera, complete with a grandiose, well-planned humiliation of a disgraced mayor and ridiculous costumes. At the meeting, the council was supposed to discuss Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's budget proposal. Instead, the obviously-fed-up council publicly rebuked Kilpatrick by voting not to hear his presentation at all.

After announcement and subsequent 6-3 vote, Kilpatrick looked taken aback, to say the least, but that could just be because he was sitting in close proximity to a city council member who was wearing a tiara and a yellow, 80s-style prom dress, apparently in honor of her birthday. She voted in Kilpatrick's favor, in case you were wondering. [FreeP]

TEXT LIVES After peeping his text game, I'm not really sure why anyone would be so interested in texting the indicted mayor of Detroit, Kwame Kilpatrick. The site www.txtkwame.com allows you to "text" the hip hop mayor. "He" texts back instantly. I asked him if he missed me, sexually. All he said was, "I’ll see ya @ work tomorrow Detroit! LOL Hell-Ya!" Clearly the thinkers behind the site put all of their creative energy into the concept.

Detroit prosecutors have just charged Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and his former lover and chief of staff, Christine Beatty, with 12 counts of perjury, obstruction of justice, and misconduct while in office. The charges come after text messages were unearthed that revealed an affair between Kilpatrick and Beatty, an affair they had denied while under oath during a trial that cost the city of Detroit $9 million. Kilpatrick has refused to resign and hinted at a racial motivation for the pressure the city and media were putting on him in the months after the scandal. The prosecutor, who is black, surely disagrees. [CID]