From The San Diego Union-Tribune, 12/1/05:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/politics/20051201-9999-1n1assess.html
Congressman's betrayal of troops called greatest sin
Cronies' deals may have put GIs at risk
By George E. Condon Jr.
COPLEY NEWS SERVICE
WASHINGTON --
Rep. Randy Cunningham's dramatic fall from power represents more than
just a historic case of personal corruption unprecedented in the long
history of the Congress.
It is also betrayal on a grand scale.
Cunningham betrayed his friends, his constituents, his colleagues and,
certainly most important, the U.S. combat troops he so loudly
championed.
By steering contracts vital to the Iraq war effort to cronies, he may
have put those troops at greater risk by judging contracts more for
what they would do for him than for the military.
That -- even more than his manifest dishonesty, personal bullying of
opponents and slight legislative record -- may turn out to be the most
shameful legacy of the now-disgraced Republican.
"This is nauseating at so many levels," said Norm Ornstein, a veteran
congressional scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.
What Cunningham, a highly decorated Vietnam veteran, did, said
Ornstein, "is worse than just taking money. It is taking money and
undermining everything he presumably stood for."
In the end, Cunningham was a portrait of contradictions and
inconsistencies.
The ever-macho tough guy, he took bribes to buy two 19th-century
commodes, or chests of drawers.
The family man, he liked to invite women to his yacht.
There, two women told Copley News Service, he would change into pajama
bottoms and a turtleneck sweater to entertain them with chilled
champagne by the light of a lava lamp.
Duke Cunningham's Washington was populated primarily by his fellow
Republicans and lobbyists -- always and everywhere, lobbyists.
His favorite restaurant was the Capital Grille, a Republican haven
midway between the Capitol and the lobbyist office suites of K Street.
There, where cigar smoking is as encouraged as the four-pound lobsters
and 24-ounce Porterhouse steaks, Cunningham could be found dining with
lobbyists amid the wood paneling, brass fixtures and private wine
lockers with engraved plaques.
One of those private lockers -- its wine always available to
Cunningham -- was maintained by Poway business executive Brent Wilkes.
Wilkes is president of ADCS Inc., a defense contracting firm.
But these days, according to sources, he is better known as
"Co-conspirator No. 1," the wording used in the 33-page legal filing
that spells out Cunningham's corruption.
Cunningham's Washington meant launching biting partisan attacks and
questioning the patriotism of his foes, all based on ostensible fealty
to what was best for the troops, while in reality putting his own
enrichment as his top priority.
A look back at some of his most scathing denunciations of fellow
veteran Sen. John Kerry last year shows that some of them came on the
same days he was getting checks for as much as $500,000 in bribe
money.
Cunningham has now confessed that he steered defense contracts because
of that bribe money "and not because using Co-conspirators Nos. 1 and
2 was in the best interest of the country."
The congressman, of course, would argue that the contracts were
legitimate.
But the fact that Cunningham's judgment was clouded by his own
financial interests makes it impossible not to question them.
Particularly sobering is the fact that one of those contracts was to
find better ways to protect American troops from roadside bombs in
Iraq.
Beyond the contracts, the sheer volume of bribes is enough to catapult
him, amazingly, to the top of the historical list for corruption in
Congress.
The House historian reports that 9,869 men and women have served in
Congress since the country's founding, and just under a dozen have
been convicted of accepting bribes.
But none could match Cunningham for audacity.
The Credit Mobilier scandal involved hundreds of thousands of dollars
in bribes to help grease the completion of the intercontinental
railroad in the 1860s.
The Abscam sting netted several members in 1978, but the average bribe
for each congressman was about $45,000.
And Rep. Dan Rostenkowski, D-Ill., pocketed about $500,000 in the
early 1990s.
Most recently, Rep. Jim Traficant, D-Ohio, was convicted for receiving
several thousand dollars in bribes.
All were big scandals.
But together they do not approach the venality of the $2.4 million
Cunningham has admitted receiving.
"There is nothing close to this in history in terms of the money
involved," said Ornstein.
Ray Smock, the former historian of the House, said, "It is truly a
monumental piece of bribery."
Smock is now director of the Robert C. Byrd Center for Legislative
Studies at Shepherd University and the president of the Association of
Centers for the Study of Congress.
"This is unbelievable," he said.
"Even hard-core cynics who are used to Washington scandals, and even
those who assume that all of them are on the take, their eyebrows are
way up on this one."
Smock lived through some of those previous scandals, but he said this
one is far different.
"This one is gut-churning in its blatancy."
Smock said he could not explain how a strong supporter of the military
could take such chances on contracts vital to the troops.
"It does sound like he was playing pretty fast and loose with lives,"
he said.
"I don't think there was any question about him being an authentic
supporter of the military. But at some point that went sour, and
that's the real tragedy.
"It does look like it became a huge effort to cash in regardless of
anything else."
_____________________________________________________
Nice guy, eh?
Harry
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