Smoke suggests fire in Fattah case

Where there's smoke, there's fire, goes the old saying. Oh, really. That's not always the case when it comes to political corruption cases against black public officials. In the 1980s, I covered Birmingham's first black mayor, Richard Arrington Jr., who was investigated by federal authorities who seemed convinced that the smoke they saw indicated a fire. But Arrington was never prosecuted. One has to assume former Philadelphia Mayor John Street would have been indicted had that bug in his office produced any tangible evidence. And what about the late Bill Gray, whose abrupt decision to leave Congress in 1991 fueled speculation that the Feds were about to pounce? Speculation about Gray persists, even though the Justice Department, at the time led by Attorney General Richard Thornburgh, a Gray nemesis, issued a statement more than 20 years ago that said Gray was not a target.

Chaka Fattah now represents the same Philadelphia district that Gray served. But unfortunately for Fattah, a federal investigation of his office has not only produced smoke, it may be about to burst into flames. Richard Naylor, a former aide to Fattah, has pleaded guilty to concealing misuse of campaign contributions and federal funds. Naylor says he conspired with a person identified in court filings as "Elected Official A." Naylor said some of the money was used to pay off the college loans of the elected official's son. Prosecutors have not revealed the identity of Elected Official A, but much of the known evidence against Naylor concerns his work in 2007, when he was Fattah's chief strategist in a failed run for mayor of Philadelphia.

Fattah has issued a statement: "In all my years as a public servant I have never engaged in any illegal conduct." But he  has not otherwise commented on the federal investigation. Meanwhile, Philadelphians can't help but wonder why some public officials succumb to temptation. Most politicians don't run for office solely for their own benefit. Could it be that some of them stay in office too long, thus increasing the opportunities to be tempted? Perhaps. But that doesn't mean term limits are the solution. Rather, it's the responsibility of voters to stay informed and retire politicians who put themselves above their constituencies. That's not always easy, especially with many news organizations reducing their political coverage. But fewer politicians would choose deceit if they knew they were being watched.

Harold Jackson