I have trouble believing that someone who sends out little league fundraising letters with the tag "A child in sports stays out of the courts," could then turn around and (allegedly) use that money to pay for the rent on his Albany apartment. The letter doesn't say he plans to steal the money - it says it is for the kids, and as a New Yorker, I believe anyone who says they support kids!

Or that Assemblyman and labor big shot Brian McLaughlin, the face of the working men and women of New York, would use union dues money and kickbacks from contractors (again, allegedly) to pay for his Long Island mansion, country club initiation fees, his wife's $80,000 Mercedes, his kids' wedding rehearsal dinner, and lavish gifts for three women he was apparently (allegedly) nailing on the side. Forcing union members to skim the profits (allegedly) off scrap metal sales and sending them to McLaughlin? Preposterous.

Using other people's money to pay for a wine cellar, a wet bar, a library, a gazebo, etc. at his mansion? How do the investigators know he didn't have a part-time job on the side to pay for that stuff? (I once saw a guy working at a Starbucks that looked like McLaughlin. I'm just saying: it could have been him.)

Those tapes where McLaughlin drops the F-bomb over and over? If I can do a drop-dead impression of Elmo from Seseme Street, surely the cops could have gotten someone to impersonate McLaughlin to help frame the poor guy. Remember, he's not just a Regular Joe, he formally represents all Regular Joes in New York!

That he had union members drive his car from his palace up to Albany (without him in it) so that he would have an EZ-Pass record for his per-diem payments from the legislature? Come on, how do they know he wasn't simply letting rank-and-filers "borrow the car." Lots of people like to visit Albany from time to time! This seems entirely plausible to me.

There is too much here for ANY of this to be true. Remember, you can't believe everything you read in a prosecutor's official charging document and in the media. I'm siding with Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver on this one. Said Silver: "These are unfortunate allegations and I believe in the presumption of innocence."

Here here! On behalf of the working men and women of New York, The Chalkboard will not rest until we disprove each and every one of these outrageous allegations. We smell a conspiracy that goes all the way to WalMart and Rupert Murdoch. How else do you explain the careful arrangement of these two paragraphs in the Post's story this morning:

Among those benefiting from the proceeds of his rip-offs were three women with whom he had "personal relationships," the indictment charges.

"This case lends new meaning to the term 'hand in the till,' " said U.S. Attorney Michael Garcia of the 186-page indictment.

Ewwwww!

We will get to the bottom of this smear campaign! The hard-working people of New York need to know the truth!