Two months before Rep. Chaka Fattah's bid for an 11th term in Congress, a longtime aide and friend admitted conspiring to misuse federal, charitable, and campaign funds to repay loans for Fattah's losing mayoral campaign and his son's college tuition. Accused in the plea of initiating the schemes, Fattah took days to defend himself and longer to produce more than a terse, generic denial. Even now, rather than address the details of the allegations, the Philadelphia Democrat prefers to draw attention to his achievements in Congress, the excesses of federal authorities, and the presumption of innocence.