John Conyers won't pay for a lawyer for his wife

Monica Conyers is really a hoot. In her hayday, she called people of authority bizarre names, argued nastily with little children, took bribes, and basically defied the law. Now she's going to prison. And Michigan taxpayers are paying for it because John, the father of her children, won't pay her legal fees.

Last week his wife Monica, who is the former president pro tempore of the Detroit City Council, was sentenced to three years in prison for her role in a bribery scandal--she pleaded guilty last year. But Monica tried to renege on her plea shortly before her sentencing. And that could cost taxpayers in Michigan and beyond. Her flip-flop means that her case continues--and a federal judge has--get this, declared Ms. Conyers indigent--so in the words of the Detroit News, "a tax-funded public defender" will represent her. 

Chairman Conyers makes $170,000 a year. But according the the News, federal law dictates that the income of family members doesn't figure into such rulings.