Free Press: House icon Conyers steers clear of his wife's troubles

Detroit Free Press via Arlene Jones on FaceBook,

U.S. Rep. John Conyers was cloistered in his office.

In a courtroom in the same building, his wife — former Detroit City Councilwoman Monica Conyers — was being sentenced to more than three years in prison.

Counseled that it would be a mistake — as chairman of the committee that oversees the prosecutors who extracted a guilty plea from his wife on corruption charges — to be in the courtroom, John Conyers stayed away.

To this day, as his wife awaits a September incarceration date, he has said nothing about it.

The 81-year-old congressman was cleared of any involvement in his wife’s crime and no one — Republican or Democrat — has suggested he give up his chairmanship of the powerful Judiciary Committee.

After nearly a half century in Congress, much is known about Conyers as a civil rights legend, even as a jazz aficionado. But he remains an enigma, a man who has studiously separated his private and public lives.

Seems keeping things a puzzle the wise move to do.