I have to confess a certain respect for Randy ‘the Dukester’ Cunningham’s chutzpah. I mean, he is a very bad man and he fully deserved the frog-marching he received. But the brashness with which he pursued dirty money has a certain flair to it.
Prosecutors call it a corruption case with no parallel in the long history of the U.S. Congress. And it keeps getting worse. Convicted Rep. Randall “Duke” Cunningham actually priced the illegal services he provided.
Prices came in the form of a “bribe menu” that detailed how much it would cost contractors to essentially order multimillion-dollar government contracts, according to documents submitted by federal prosecutors for Cunningham’s sentencing hearing this Friday.
“The length, breadth and depth of Cunningham’s crimes,” the sentencing memorandum states, “are unprecedented for a sitting member of Congress.”
…The sentencing memorandum includes the California Republican’s “bribery menu” on one of his congressional note cards, “starkly framed” under the seal of the United States Congress.
The card shows an escalating scale for bribes, starting at $140,000 and a luxury yacht for a $16 million Defense Department contract. Each additional $1 million in contract value required a $50,000 bribe.
The rate dropped to $25,000 per additional million once the contract went above $20 million.
At one point Cunningham was living on a yacht named after him, “The Dukester,” docked near Capitol Hill, courtesy of a defense company president.
I wonder how many other Congresspeople learned this game at Cunningham’s knee? People like Katherine Harris, perhaps?
Another critical factor to consider with this corruption is how accepted it is. The same defense contractors that have bribed the politicians are some of the ones who have been conducting the possibly illegal surveillance, monitoring, profiling and behavior modeling of the blogosphere residents. How can we assume that these programs have been conducted on the level? If they are willing to go to these lengths to obtain contracts, what else are they capable of?
today with something that a member of the GOP had done, but I was wrong.
It gets better Tracy.
So what made the guy get off his yacht and confess to all of this?
(I have to admit this guy has big ones… and I don’t mean luxury vehicles.)
he got ratted out.
…and then he wore a wire after he got busted.
at work. Considering the Republican base backlash in the military though going on right now as they struggle to make all attempts to protect their “politicians” while they lose all of their principles…..I find that I must email the whole deal to my husband right now.
You’re forgetting about the commode! That’s my favorite image: the Dukester, sitting on his antique commode, with tears running down his cheeks after he got busted.
I don’t know much about his history but it does make one wonder if, way back when, he started out with the accumulation of wealth as his goal, rather than service to his country. But then he is a Repug, isn’t he?
That’s quite breathtaking …a bribe menu…this sounds like a heaven sent bit for the Daily Show. I mean really, what do we have here, mix/match bribery items, ala carte bribery, combo special for lunch..just some light bribery before the heavy guns on the dinner menu come out..
I can only deal with the outrageousness of this by making jokes..jesus.
By the way his lawyers are going to ask for some leniency in his sentencing, siting the fact that he is an old man with continuing prostrate problems, thyroid problems, etc etc …..
When I first saw THIS I thought it was some Photo-shoppers’ parody…how wrong I was!
The gall and hubris oozes off the page…I hope the wire got some more of these swine and that they all rot in prison.
Peace