Birmingham Blues

John Archibald exposes Larry Langford’s payoffs to local media figures.  I don’t even want to summarize; this makes me want to puke.  Go read.

Mitt Romney suspended his campaign today,virtually guaranteeing John McCain the Republican nomination. Mitt, whose military age sons have served their country the past year by working on his campaign, couldn’t resist a cheap shot at the Democrats.

“If I fight on in my campaign, all the way to the convention, I would forestall the launch of a national campaign and make it more likely that Senator Clinton or Obama would win. And in this time of war, I simply cannot let my campaign, be a part of aiding a surrender to terror,” Romney told the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington.

Given the venue, I guess that was mild. Last year, Romney supporter Ann Coulter used her platform there to call John Edwards a faggot. That was too much even for CPAC; the conference organizers didn’t invite her back this year.

See ya, Mitt. I hope your heirs aren’t too angry that you spent $40 million of their inheritance. Whoever will Coulter and Rush Limbaugh support now?

I don’t get this.  Gary White’s attorney is objecting now to Judge U. W. Clemon’s decision to move the original trial from Birmingham to Montgomery, which entailed a change of district, and the judge has agreed to set aside the verdict if White will accept retrial in Tuscaloosa.

Clemon noted that Rasmussen did not object before trial to the case being moved to Montgomery. But the judge said the location could be a debatable issue at the appeal level.

White was found guilty of nine counts of conspiracy and bribery for taking envelopes full of cash from an engineering firm seeking county contracts while he was the JeffCo Commissioner in charge of overseeing the county’s Department of Environmental Services.

Changing districts is an appealable issue?  Who knew.  Attorneys, what do you think of this?

Related posts:

• Former Jefferson County Commissioner Indicted
• Gary White Found Guilty of All Charges

CNN.com has state-by-state results for Super Tuesday here. As of this morning, New Mexico is still too close to call on the Dem side.

Clinton: Arizona, Arkansas, California, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma, Tennessee

Obama: Alabama, Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri

Huckabee: Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Tennessee, West Virginia

McCain: Arizona, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma

Romney: Alaska, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, Utah

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Barack Obama won big in Alabama last night; Mike Huckabee’s margin wasn’t as wide, but both primaries drew lots of voters. I thought it would be fun to look back at the last two primaries to see what happens to turnout when a state goes from also-ran (June primary) to relevant (Super Tuesday). Here’s what I found:

Democratic Primary:

• 2000: 278,527
• 2004: 218,574
• 2008: 539,743 (updated at 4:30 PM CST)

Republican Primary:

• 2000: 203,079
• 2004: 201,487
• 2008: 563,822 (updated at 4:30 PM CST)

Wow! Numbers for 2000 and 2004 come from the Alabama Secretary of State’s website. 2008 numbers come from CNN.com. The 2004 Republican primary was uncontested, of course, although there were 14,449 votes for Uncommitted.

I admit to being a bit surprised that Democratic voters didn’t outstrip Republicans this time around, but there were no other statewide races on the ballot. Even in Republican stronghold Shelby County, poll workers were handing out Democratic ballots in larger numbers than expected. My very unscientific survey: I most definitely live in Republicanville. Yard signs haven’t been big this year, but the few I’ve seen in my neighborhood are for Huckabee. I was voter #301 at my precinct at 8:30 AM yesterday. I was #17 on the L thru R Democratic sign-up sheet in use at the time, while only 14 Republicans were signed in. The fifty-something white guy who came behind me in line also asked for a Democratic ballot. Not statistically significant at all as I couldn’t get a look at the breakdown on all the sign-in sheets, but it still gave me a good feeling.

Actually, the whole day gave me a good feeling. I was in a hurry when I cast my vote yesterday morning, rushing to get started with a packed schedule of meetings and kids’ activities, but later in the afternoon I took some time to reflect. Here’s what I said over at Tom’s place:

The historic nature of today’s vote is just beginning to sink in. For the first time ever, a major party’s nominee will — not might — be a woman or a person of color. That’s chill bump territory.

Our children and grandchildren will study this landmark election in their history and political science classes. We’re living it. That is so cool!

Now it gets even more complex. Birmingham City Councilor William Bell won today’s county commission race without a runoff. Gov. Bob Riley appointed retired Gen. George Bowman to replace Larry Langford when Langford was elected mayor of Birmingham, but a three-judge panel ruled that he needed Justice Department approval for his appointment. He waited till today to notify the panel that he would seek approval. Meanwhile, JeffCo went ahead with a special election. I guess Riley was hoping his appointee would win and save him the trouble of pleading his case to the Justice Department.

Riley’s request for approval reportedly extends Bowman’s term to at least mid-April. So — will Bowman and Bell share a seat at county commission meetings? Will they fight over it? Stay tuned. This whole thing is as clear as mud.

Related posts:

• Judges Rule Against Riley
• Troy King, taking it to the hoop
• JeffCo Commission Sets February Special Election

Huckabee takes Alabama.

That’s eighteen delegates for the Huckster.  Somewhere, Chuck Norris is smiling and cleaning his ice pick.

Blues reader Lisa says she got a call from Chuck Norris last night asking her to vote for Mike Huckabee. I hope she told him she would — even though she won’t. Huckabee is telling supporters to let the air out of the tires of people who aren’t voting for him.

In a brief homecoming Monday afternoon in an airplane hangar, Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee urged his supporters to get people out to vote today.

And, Huckabee jokingly said if they know people who intend to vote for someone else, to go let the air out of their tires.

It’s amazing how the mean-spiritedness can show its face through “jokes”. Lisa, let us know if Chuck shows up at your house with an icepick.

Tomorrow is Super Tuesday, or maybe Super Duper Tuesday, or perhaps even Tsunami Tuesday, depending on which cable news network hype you hear. Whatever you call it, if you’re registered to vote, go out and vote!

I’ll be casting my vote for Sen. Hillary Clinton. Democrats have had an embarrassment of riches when it comes to excellent Presidential candidates, and tomorrow I’m voting for the one I believe to be the better of two really good choices.

I’m supporting Hillary Clinton because I think she has the experience we need to get this country back on track after eight years of the Bush maladministration, which has broken down our government to the point that it’s nearly beyond repair (think giving no-bid contracts to private businesses and then farming out the oversight to other private businesses). Someone has to pull what’s left of it out of the bathtub and resuscitate it so it can function properly. We need a President with a substantial understanding of governance, and I believe Sen. Clinton has it. She’s serving her second term in the Senate, and that’s valuable, but I also consider her years as First Lady of Arkansas and then the US relevant. To my mind, those years count as meaningful experience when they were lived by a person who is as intelligent and interested in the process as she is and always has been.

Sen. Clinton has faced down attacks from right-wingers for years, all of them ugly and some of them outright deranged. (If any of you had the dubious pleasure of receiving a slew of email from the professional Hillary-hater who’s been blanketing Alabama for the past few weeks, you know what I mean.) She doesn’t back down, and she’s still standing. I admire her strength and her courage, and I think they’ll serve her well as the Democratic candidate and as President.

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If you live in Jefferson County District 1, be sure to cast your vote for a County Commissioner to replace Larry Langford. The slate includes George Bowman, who was appointed by Bob Riley; Birmingham City Councilor William Bell; real estate investor Kamau Afrika; Orville Ifill, a former County Commission public information officer and lobbyist; Eric Major, a former member of the state House of Representatives; and Fred “Coach” Plump, who filed a suit in federal court that resulted in a ruling that the governor needs Justice Department approval to appoint replacement Commissioners.

I know very little about any of these candidates, but Bowman did vote to allow Commissioners Bettye Fine Collins and Jim Carns to give $15,000 in taxpayer money to fund a religious right propaganda session put on by the Eagle Forum, while claiming to know nothing about the organization. If you’re from District 1, let us know your pick in the comments.

ADDENDUM: A Blues reader reminds me that Mr. Afrika was a big help in Patricia Todd’s race for the State House and that William Bell fully supported the inclusion resolution that finally passed the Birmingham City Council after some childish nonsense from a few other Council members.

Bill Clinton will speak at Miles College’s Knox/Windham Gymnasium tomorrow (Saturday). Doors open at 11:30 AM; speech scheduled for 12:30 PM. The event is free and open to the public. He’s starting the day in Huntsville with a town hall meeting at Huntsville High School.