John Brady—mayor of Mankato, Minnesota—was recently arrested and charged with driving while intoxicated. And leaving the scene of an accident. And driving with an open container of alcohol (vodka). His blood-alcohol level? Three times the legal limit.

Brady was so drunk that his arresting officer "thought he was speaking a foreign language":

According to a complaint filed Tuesday, police received a call about a hit-and-run suspect in Golden Valley at about 1 p.m. Saturday. After locating Brady's car, an officer observed him crossing over and drifting between lanes. The officer said Brady didn't stop his vehicle when police emergency lights were on and then struck a vehicle while exiting I-394 to Hopkins Crossroad.

Before almost hitting another vehicle, Brady stopped, the complaint said. When he exited the vehicle, he used his door to brace himself. He told the officer that he had been drinking. Police asked him to perform field sobriety tests and he "was unable to complete them successfully,'' the complaint said.

Mankato—the fourth-largest a city in the great state of Minnesota, outside of the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area—is probably best-known as "the big town" in Little House on the Prairie. What would the young Laura Ingalls Wilder say to John Brady, the town's mayor? Probably, "What is that iron horse you are driving? And why do you smell like that?"

Brady, who's served as Mayor for four years, is up for reelection this fall. Best of luck to him!

[Minneapolis Star Tribune; hat tip to Goole]