... the next day you're someone's windshield."

That is one of the many colorful comments left by forum posters on the Web in reaction to yesterday's conviction of former Newark mayor Sharpe James on fraud charges. He and his ex-girlfriend, Tamika Riley, a Newark publicist, got caught up in a web of rigging cheap sales of city property from the city to her so that she could sell them for a healthy profit.

Not only are they looking at up to seven years imprisonment, but also another federal trial for spending city money so that he could live like a baller/shot caller.

In our world of freaky governors and mayors, we've lost sight of the real reason most politicians get in trouble: graft.

Fortunately, we've got former Mayor Sharpe James, who is accused of spending 20 years fleecing the city of Newark, washing the hands of his cronies and friends, strong-arming the political establishment and generally being a badboy black politician who got anyone over age 50 to vote for him because that's all he needed to win.