Republican bites the "shady dealings" dust

[Neil D]

Is it me or am I hearing more and more republicans being involved with goverment contracts directed in special places aka , profiteering racket.....????

[:"blue"] San Diego-area Rep. Cunningham pleads guilty to bribery, resigns

ELLIOT SPAGAT

Associated Press

SAN DIEGO - Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham tearfully resigned Monday after pleading guilty to bribery and admitting he took $2.4 million to steer defense contracts to conspirators using his leadership position on a congressional subcommittee.

The Republican congressman and Vietnam War hero choked up as he announced his resignation outside federal court. Until entering his pleas, he had insisted he had done nothing wrong.

"The truth is I broke the law, concealed my conduct, and disgraced my office," he said. "I know that I will forfeit my freedom, my reputation, my worldly possessions, most importantly, the trust of my friends and family."

Authorities said Cunningham secured defense contracts worth tens of millions of dollars for the people who bribed him. The case grew from an investigation into the sale of his home in wealthy Del Mar to a wide-ranging conspiracy involving payments in cash, vacations and antiques from unidentified conspirators.

Before resigning, Cunningham, 63, entered pleas in U.S. District Court to charges of conspiracy to commit bribery, mail fraud and wire fraud, and tax evasion for underreporting his income in 2004.

Cunningham, an eight-term congressman, answered "yes, Your Honor" when asked by U.S. District Judge Larry Burns if he had accepted bribes in exchange for his performance of official duties.

"He did the worst thing an elected official can do - he enriched himself through his position and violated the trust of those who put him there," U.S. Attorney Carol Lam said in a prepared statement.

After the hearing, Cunningham was fingerprinted then released on his own recognizance until a Feb. 27 sentencing hearing. He could receive a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.

Cunningham agreed to forfeit to the government his Rancho Santa Fe home, more than $1.8 million in cash and antiques and rugs.

In court documents, prosecutors said Cunningham admitted receiving at least $2.4 million in bribes paid to him by several conspirators through a variety of methods, including checks totaling over $1 million, cash, furniture, yacht club fees and vacations. Prosecutors did not name the conspirators.

Among other things, the documents said Cunningham was given $1.025 million to pay down the mortgage of his Rancho Santa Fe home, $13,500 to buy a Rolls Royce and $2,081 for his daughter's graduation party at a Washington, D.C, hotel.

The tax evasion charge came after Cunningham reported joint income with his wife of $121,079 for 2004 and claimed he was due a refund of $8,504. Prosecutors said his income was $1,215,458 and he owed $385,077 in taxes.

Daniel Dzwilewski, the FBI's special agent in charge in San Diego, called the violations "staggering" for a U.S. congressman.

The case began when authorities started investigating whether Cunningham and his wife, Nancy, used proceeds from the $1,675,000 sale of their home in Del Mar to defense contractor Mitchell Wade to buy a $2.55 million mansion in ritzy Rancho Santa Fe. Wade put the Del Mar house back on the market and sold it after nearly a year for $975,000 - a loss of $700,000.

Cunningham drew little notice outside his San Diego-area district before the San Diego Union-Tribune reported last June that he'd sold the home to Wade.

The house sale was just one in a series of too-friendly deals for Cunningham. Though he denied wrongdoing when he announced in July that he wouldn't seek re-election, Cunningham himself acknowledged it didn't look good.

Cunningham's pleas came amid a series of Republican scandals. Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Texas, had to step down as majority leader after a Texas prosecutor indicted him in a campaign finance case; a stock sale by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., is being looked at by regulators; and Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff was indicted in the CIA leak case.

In addition to buying Cunningham's home at an inflated price, Wade let him live rent-free on his yacht, the Duke Stir, at the Capital Yacht Club. His firm, MZM Inc., donated generously to Cunningham's campaigns. Prosecutors did not specify if those allegations were part of Cunningham's guilty pleas.

Around the same time, MZM was winning valuable defense contracts, and Cunningham sat on the House Appropriations subcommittee that controls defense dollars. In 2004 the little-known company based in Washington, D.C., tripled its revenue and nearly quadrupled its staff, according to information posted on the company Web site before Wade stepped down as president and the company was sold to a private equity firm.

An associate of Wade, Brent Wilkes, president of a Poway company called ADCS Inc., also gave Cunningham campaign cash and favors. Wilkes reportedly flew Cunningham in a corporate jet to go hunting in Idaho and golfing in Hawaii, and a charitable foundation Wilkes started spent $36,000 hosting a black tie "Tribute to Heroes" gala in 2002 that feted Cunningham with a trophy naming him a hero.

ADCS, which specializes into turning paper records into digital files, has received tens of millions in Defense Department contracts since the late 1990s.

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[Dr. Shane]

This really contrasts America with some other nations. In America our politicians are investigated and held accountable. That is a good thing.

The AP has an interesting take that obviously shows bias:

Quote:

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Cunningham's pleas came amid a series of Republican scandals. Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Texas, had to step down as majority leader after a Texas prosecutor indicted him in a campaign finance case; a stock sale by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., is being looked at by regulators; and Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff was indicted in the CIA leak case.

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None of those cases are related and nor have any of them been convicted. That paragraph really doesn't belong in the story accept for the fact that the reporter is trying to influence public opinion.

More Republicans are likely to be corrupt because they are in power and thus more in a position to become corrupt. If we go back to the time that Democrats controlled Congress we find simular coruption among them. This isn't a partisan issue. Power and coruption tend to go hand and hand.

[Neil D]

At the bottom of this article from the washington post, is the following paragraph-

Quote:

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At least partly because of public reports of these inquiries, voters' feelings about Congress have turned upside down since the start of 2001. In January 2001, 59 percent of Americans approved of the way Congress was doing its job and 34 percent disapproved, according a Washington Post-ABC survey. Earlier this month, the same poll showed that 37 percent approved and 59 percent disapproved.

In addition, for the first time in its 15-year history, the Wall Street Journal-NBC poll this year showed that the public's negative feelings exceeded its positive feelings about both political parties at the same time. "These are cautionary notes that are affecting both parties' political standing," McInturff said.

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Speaking from the public view, could it be that the republicans, who have courted and aligned themselves with christian evangelicals, and supposedly adopted thier morality, be looked upon as hypocritical in thier politics?

While there were democrates who were scandle ridden with corruption in the past, the on e thing going for them in thier favor was that they were not aligned with a christian organization...Indeed, in the 60's, depending upon what religion you were, declaring yourself any sort of denominational christian was to alienate you from the rest of the Christian sector. But now adays, aligning oneself with a non-denominational Christian is tantamount to getting votes from the Christian world. And while the Republican party has aligned itself with the christian right, isn't it about time the Christian Right applied pressure to clean up it's own mess?

No voter likes corruption, in either democrate or repulican. But it still seems to me that you find it more in the republican party....

[Dr. Shane]

Congress' approval rating has went down since Nwet Gingrich left. We will always find more corruption in the party that holds the most power. There is a direct link between power and corruption.