Now Kyle Whitmire say's 'If this is justice set Larry Langford free" RedEye Roll

After doing everything in his power to make sure Larry Langford was convicted and sent to prison for EYE still haven't figured out what,  Kyle Whitmire has a change of heart and says maybe the old crook should go free? 

I don’t know Kyle Whitmire, but if he has no love for Larry Langford it clouds his objectivity. Reporters are supposed to report just the facts, regardless if they have love for their subjects or not. Any progressive viewpoint Kyle Whitmire have should not seep into his reporting. Any love/hate Kyle Whitmire has for Larry Langford should not be a factor in his reporting. It’s a dangerous, slippery slope we thread when reporters become a part of the story and use their influence and privilege to shape public opinion. 

Well EYE guess it depends on what his definition of an "old crook" IS.  Let's recap.

The mood at the classic was rather somber this year, partially due to the rain on Friday and Saturday, and partially because Larry Langford was convicted the previous Wednesday. White suburbanites and the Birmingham news media may not have liked Larry Langford but the people who elected him loved him" because "he was cleaning up the city" . They believe his conviction will be a vehicle to over turn the election so Patrick Cooper can become Mayor. They question why Langford was convicted over some suits and a Rolex, while the two men who made millions got away scott free.

Prosecutors claimed Langford accepted cash and luxury items worth some $236,000 while serving as president of the Jefferson County Commission. In exchange, they claimed, Langford sent lucrative bond business to investment banker Bill Blount, a former chairman of the Alabama Democratic Party.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Tamarra Matthews Johnson told jurors in closing arguments that Langford was heavily in debt and accepted the gifts from Blount, along with checks or loan payoffs through a middleman, lobbyist Al LaPierre. Both Blount and LaPierre pleaded guilty in the scheme and testified against Langford under their plea agreements.

Langford's' troubles stem from the sewer construction and bond swap controversy.

In 1995, Jefferson County entered into a consent decree with the Environmental Protection Agency regarding sewer overflows into the Cahaba River watershed. A total of $3.2 billion of new construction was subsequently contracted, both to comply with the consent decree and to expand the system to newly-developing areas and increase the number of ratepayers financing the construction. Much of this work was awarded to inexperienced companies, many of which have since been convicted of bribery along with several county officials.

The "sewer controversy" caused a rate hike. People on fixed incomes had water bills that were higher than their electric bills. Renters would move leaving property owners with thousands of dollars in unpaid water bills. If the landlords didn't pay liens were placed on the property until a law was passed by the legislature property where owners were not responsible for tenets water bills.

The "old crook's" Lawyers were worried about a tainted jury pool, and EYE was worried too.

I’m worried too and this is why.
Let me preface what I’m about to say with the disclaimer that I have no personal, business or social connection to Larry Langford. I have never voted for him, campaigned for him or donated to any of his campaigns. All I know about the charges against him are what I’ve read in the media. I am not speaking on behalf of Langford or in defense of Langford personally or his policies.

It has long concerned me that Alabama Democrats, especially progressive/liberal Democrats have been under attack by the republican controlled justice system, enabled by the MSM we have. Democrats from former Governor Don Siegleman, former State Senator E.B. McClain, former Jefferson County Commissioner Jeff Germany on down to former state Representative Sue Schmitz have been tried and convicted after widely publicized allegations of corruption. If this can happen to high profile elected officials, it can happen to you or to me. If I am accused of a crime, I want a fair trail. Strike that, our system of justice demands I have fair trail.
I don’t know if Langford is guilty of the charges against him or not, and I won’t know IF he doesn’t have a fair trial by a jury of his peers, who will listen to all the evidence presented in a court of law, not the evidence presented in the media.
I’m concerned that having a Media Forum the night before his trial entitled ” What will we do when Birmingham is broke and everyone is in jail” could not only taint a jury pool, but it’s unfair to the defendant because it assumes the city is broke and he is going to jail. I just don’t that’s fair. Sorry.
Is Langford a loudmouth, flashy, anti gay, bible thumper? Yes. As an American citizen does he deserve a fair and impartial trial by a jury of his peers? Absolutely. Would I feel this way if Langford was a white, conservative republican? Yes. I believe in the rule of law. I believe in liberty and justice for all. I believe in the right to a fair trial by a jury of ones peers. I believe evidence should be presented in a court of law, not in the media.
I believe in America. Where anything is possible.

In light of one of Langford's'  biggest detractors change of hard, EYE mean heart, maybe Larry Langford was right (no pun intended), and his prosecution was political. 

Sore losers undermine majority rule

Back in the day when I was contemplating running for a Student Government Office in high school my Daddy gave me the following advice,(para quoting) if you can't stand to lose don't run. Someone will win fair and square and someone will lose fair and square. You will either know the thrill of victory or the agony of defeat. If you lose, lose like a winner. My 9th grade Civics teacher taught us the minority must be heard but the majority rules. Present day Politicos evidently learned different lessons from their parent(s)/mentor(s)/teacher(s). I've never seen such a bunch of sore losers.

Ironically Senator Joe Lieberman started the sore loser syndrome. Liberman was a gracious loser before he was a sore loser. Florida Governor Charlie Crist couldn't stand to lose so he bowed out of the republican primary to run as a spoiler, I mean Independent. Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski couldn't stand to lose so she is waging an an aggressive write in campaign.

Sweet Home Alabama caught a case of sore loser syndrome starting with the Birmingham Mayoral Elections. Followed by the Tim James recount. A suit was filed to remove republican gubernatorial nominee Robert Bentley from the ballot and delay the election. And there are rumblings of a write in campaign waged by die hard supporters of the losers aka the minority. I sure do miss the good old days when the candidate with the most votes won. *Sigh*

The losers are turned into the sore winners.

The Sore Winners are easy to find. They are most visible at their flagship, Fox News, which dominates both cable news and the political conversation and yet is always embattled, defending itself against the heathen. They are loudest not only on secular talk radio, but also in Christian broadcasting, which tells its listeners that a nation that remains a nation of Christians rather than a Christian nation is a nation that has turned against them. This is not to say, however, that the Sore Winners are strictly a political phenomenon, manipulated, as some would have it, by their masters in the media or by the money men from Wall Street. No, what makes the Sore Winners such a force in American politics is that their anger is so personal.

And that's what scares me.

Worrying about what someone who doesn't think about you thinks about you: this is the essence of Sore Winnerdom, and it is no accident that it also the essence of the Republican animus. The Republican party was small and hidebound — the party of country-club corporatists, and the range-war West — until, with the Reagan Revolution, it began grafting unto itself the legions of the disaffected: the Christianists, the Southerners, the blue-collar workers displaced by the collapse of America's industrial base and estranged from the unions that failed them. The Tea Party, in this sense, is not a new development so much as it is part of an ongoing migration of the perpetually petulant, a political phenomenon grounded in a demographic one: the creation of a class of baby-boom retirees who have been deprived of meaningful work but given personal computers as Christmas presents. The skin on the Republican Party's "Big Tent" is by definition thin, and under it gathers a volatile throng of people with nothing in common but the fear that outside its environs someone is laughing at them — or simply having a better time.

And that's what scares me.

I can certainly empathize and understand the agony of defeat when your candidate loses a hard fought election. I didn't think the pit in my stomach would ever go away after the 2000 Presidential election. It was like deja vu all over again in 2002. I went to bed Don Siegelman was the Governor, when I I woke up Bob Riley was the governor. I had to accept the majority rule and get over it like a good American. How will the losers react if they don't win on Tuesday?(warning language)

if, as the most optimistic polling shows is possible, the Republicans don't win back the House of Representatives and lose a good many of the close Senate races next Tuesday, the reaction on the right will be violent. There will be a number of instances of Democratic headquarters vandalized, people who support Democrats will be assaulted, bomb threats will be called in, and there may even be an alarmingly well-organized, but supposedly grassroots and spontaneous, riot or two.

That's what I'm afraid of.

On the other hand I fear the Politicians with the most dangerous,wrong ideas are poised to win the Congress and the State Legislature.

Shaken by an assault on their assumptions, many Americans become more adamant in defense of discredited ideology.

I pray a majority of the Americans will beware of fears racist temptation. I also pray the American minority loves their country more than they hate President Obama.

[T]he truth is, there is something terribly wrong with this country, isn't there? Cruelty and injustice, intolerance and oppression. And where once you had the freedom to object, to think and speak as you saw fit, you now have censors and systems of surveillance coercing your conformity and soliciting your submission. How did this happen? Who's to blame? Well certainly there are those more responsible than others, ... but again truth be told, if you're looking for the guilty, you need only look into a mirror. I know why you did it. I know you were afraid. Who wouldn't be? ... There were a myriad of problems which conspired to corrupt your reason and rob you of your common sense. Fear got the best of you...

If you can't stand to lose don't run.