"Not the brightest person"

San Antonio Express-News reporter Lisa Marie Gomez examines disgraced former Cameron County Sheriff Conrado Cantu, who faces sentencing this week for protecting illegal drug shipments.

The money quote from Alberto Pullen, Cantu's Brownsville attorney:

Pullen said his client is "not the brightest person you'll ever meet," but he's not a bad person, either.

Yeah, right. Why do we keep electing morons like this to public office? Back in June, a federal grand jury indicted this weasel on ten counts including racketeering, extortion and conspiracy. A month later, he pleaded guilty to racketeering. He now faces up to life in prison.

Express-News editor Robert Rivard speculates:

Cantu's sentencing hearing will come six months after he agreed to plead guilty. That's quite a span of time. I'm not the only newspaperman who wonders what kind of song Cantu is singing now from his cell up Highway 77. It's a safe bet that it isn't one his favorite old standbys by Mexican idol Vicente Fernandez.

So did Cantu give up the names of some bigger fish to get off the hook? Maybe his prison sentence will give us a clue.