Larry Lankford experiences first-hand, the long arms of the law

This is Birmingham's mayor, Larry Lankford.....what a schmuck!

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -The mayor of Alabama's largest city, Larry Langford, was arrested Monday on charges of steering millions of dollars of bond work to a friend in exchange for more than $230,000 in bribes that paid his debts for flashy clothes, jewelry and Rolex watches.

[The alleged crimes took place while Lankford was on the Jefferson County Commission. It's no coincidence that partly due to his incompetence, Jefferson County is facing the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history.]

The charges also include conspiracy, money laundering and filing false tax returns.

Langford, arrested by FBI agents at a beer distributor where he also has a public relations job, appeared in federal court in leg irons and pleaded not guilty through his lawyer.

"I'm going to work today," Langford told reporters outside the courthouse after being freed on $50,000 bond. A Democrat, Langford has said for months that he expected to be indicted in what he referred to as a witchhunt by Republican prosecutors.

I heard a story about Lankford today. There's a guy named Milton McGregor here in Birmingham who runs a dog track down in Montgomery, and he wants Lankford to allow slot-machine betting at the dog track here too. As the story goes, Lankford showed up at McGregor's track in Montgomery and was escorted directly to a particular slot machine that was being guarded by some thug. Lankford pulled the arm of the machine three times and won $325,000....to the shock of dismayed onlookers. Well, now those onlookers have filed a class action suit against McGregor and it named Lankford as the guy getting the preferential treatment.

I swear, if it weren't for New Orleans mayor, Ray "chocolate city" Nagin, Mayor Lankford might be the dirtiest mayor in America. The problem is that the residents of Birmingham voted for Lankford for the same reasons the residents of NO voted for Nagin, despite the fact the he's an utter failure.....race.

Lankford took the relative high-road and blamed republicans, when he could have played the race card and blamed white republicans. I'm sure he'll get around to it at some point.

Side note: The prosecutor, Alice Martin, is also the one who busted HealthSouth CEO Richard Scrushy and former governor Don Seigleman on similar charges. Man, her star is certainly rising. She'll probably end up in somebody's justice department at the federal level.