Larry Langford, former mayor of Birmingham, Alabama, was sentenced to 15 years in prison today. Last October, a federal jury took less than two hours to convict Langford of taking nearly a quarter million dollars in bribes in exchange for $7.2 million in sewer-bond and derivatives business to an investment banker friend.

Jurors found in October that Langford, a Democrat, solicited cash, loan payoffs and designer suits from William Blount, the former head of a Montgomery, Alabama-based securities firm, and Albert LaPierre, a consultant. In return, Langford, then president of the Jefferson County Commission, used his power to bring Blount into deals, including a $3 billion refinancing of the county’s sewer debt led by JPMorgan Chase & Co. . . .

Jefferson County’s sewer financing nearly bankrupted the state’s most populous county during the credit crisis. Interest payments rose as high as 10 percent in 2008 after bond insurers guaranteeing the debt lost their top ratings because of losses on unrelated mortgage-backed securities.

The Democrat culture of corruption permeates deep into the party.

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