With all due respect the Detroit and the entire state of New Jersey, it's hard to beat East Cleveland, Ohio when it comes to corruption. The Cleveland suburb is known as a place where cops are routinely busted for drug dealing and allowing prisoners to escape. It's so dysfunctional that it doesn't know where half its water goes, and it forces firemen to mow parks in their down time...


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That's likely because the city's leadership is not of a caliber often associated with, say, Abraham Lincoln. One former mayor is in prison after being convicted on a smorgasbord of bribery charges. The last
mayor gained office despite a previous conviction for manslaughter. It seems she stabbed a boyfriend to death. And it appears the present mayor, Eric Brewer, who bills himself as a reformer, is not so straight either.


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Normally this wouldn't be True Crime's business. If a mayor wants to prance around in women's underwear, far be it from us to complain. But this is Eric Brewer, a man who made his bones as a henchman for corrupt Cleveland Mayor Mike White. His specialty: Anonymous attack mailers targeting the various misdeeds and private sins of enemies. So as the New York literati like to say, this bad boy's rich in delicious irony.


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Just days before the Democratic primary -- the only election that matters in these parts -- someone began circulating photos of Brewer in drag. He's seen decked in garters and showing his womanly buttocks. He's seen with his bra pulled down showing his... well... not particularly impressive boobs. Paging Dr. Silicon! Truth be told, he doesn't make a half-bad woman. But we'd venture to guess that, even in East Cleveland, this won't play well with the voting public.


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Brewer is blaming his opponent, Council President Gary Norton. Norton is saying he had nothing to do with publicizing the photos, all while smiling as if it's Christmas morning. And this could be the work of either the police force or fire department, both of which Brewer has constantly railed against. The again, the mayor has made so many enemies for his own tactics over the years, the list of suspects is likely in the thousands -- and probably includes the jilted girlfriend or boyfriend who took the photos.


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Normally we'd be getting all sanctimonious about the decline of civil discourse in politics, blah, blah, blah. But Brewer has made this kind of underhanded attack a staple of his long and misguided political career. So if you have something to say about karma, feel free to throw it up on the comments section below.