It was political banter at the April 18 Pancakes & Politics forum sponsored by the Michigan Chronicle. Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson, Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano and Macomb County Commission Chairman William Crouchman came together to discuss regional issues.

But the standing-room-only event at the Townsend Hotel in Birmingham was at one point an exchange of teasing remarks, especially between Patterson and Kilpatrick.

“I see Alan Schwartz in the audience, and I think he’s the only lawyer you haven’t hired yet,” Patterson said, in reference to Kilpatrick’s legal woes.

The mayor responded, “It’s too early.”

But the discussion soon took on a more serious tone when audience members started firing questions to the Big Four panel. One of the first issues touched on was race and the April 27 speech Rev. Jeremiah Wright will deliver at the Detroit Branch NAACP Fight for Freedom Fund Dinner.

“If he goes to the Freedom Dinner and makes similar comments, he’ll drive a wedge in the region. I think he’s one of the most divisive speakers I’ve ever heard,” Patterson said, even comparing Wright’s coming here a Ku Klux Klan invitation.

Kilpatrick immediately checked Patterson’s comments and said juxtaposing Wright to the KKK “is so far beyond African Americans’ experience.”

Patterson backed off and instead said, “I’m just trying to pick someone who would inflame your passions like Qaddafi or Osama bin Laden.”

However, Detroit business leader Marvin Beatty, a Greektown Casino investor who was in the audience,, further took issue with the Oakland County boss on what he termed as misrepresentation of Wright.

“Twenty-five years ago, your comments are not anything like they are today,” Beatty said. “I’ve watched you transition and I respect you. That’s the difference with time and listening.”

Beatty reminded Patterson of his own history dating back to when he (Patterson) was the attorney for the National Action Group, the organization that opposed integrating the Pontiac School District.

Veteran attorney Elbert Hatchett, then head of the Oakland County NAACP, brought the Pontiac school segregation to federal court. The case was assigned to Damon J. Keith, the only Black jurist at the time, who ruled for busing in Pontiac schools.

All four regional leaders talked about the expansion of Cobo with Ficano challenging his colleagues and the governor to a meeting.

“This is about a half-billion dollars and 16,000 jobs. It doesn’t get any better than that,” Ficano said of the Cobo project.

Kilpatrick reiterated that he was not leaving office despite the charges against him.