Posted on 11/28/2005 12:30:57 PM PST by RWR8189
Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham pleaded guilty Monday to conspiracy and tax charges and tearfully resigned from office, admitting he took $2.4 million in bribes to steer defense contracts to conspirators.
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 answered "yes, Your Honor" when asked by U.S. District Judge Larry Burns if he had accepted bribes from someone in exchange for his performance of official duties.
Later, at a news conference, he wiped away tears as he announced his resignation.
"I can't undo what I have done but I can atone," he said.
Cunningham, an eight-term Republican congressman, had already announced in July that he would not seek re-election next year.
House Ethics rules say that any lawmaker convicted of a felony no longer should vote or participate in committee work. Under Republican caucus rules, Cunningham also would have lost his chairmanship of the House Intelligence subcommittee on terrorism and human intelligence.
The former Vietnam War flying ace was known on Capitol Hill for his interest in defense issues and his occasional temperamental outbursts.
After the hearing, Cunningham was taken away for fingerprinting and released on his own recognizance until a Feb. 27 sentencing hearing. He could receive up to 10 years in prison.
He also agreed to forfeit to the government his Rancho Santa Fe home, more than $1.8 million in cash and antiques and rugs.
In a statement, prosecutors said Cunningham admitted to 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, rugs, antiques, furniture, yacht club fees and vacations.
"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. The statement did not identify the conspirators.
The case began when authorities started investigating whether Cunningham and his wife, Nancy, used the proceeds from the $1,675,000 sale to defense contractor Mitchell Wade to buy the $2.55 million mansion in 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.
He 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.
Cunningham's pleas came amid a series of GOP scandals. Rep. Tom DeLay of Texas had to step down as majority leader after he was indicted in a campaign finance case; a stock sale by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist is being looked at by regulators; and Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff was indicted in the CIA leak case.
What planet do you reside on?
What a disgraceful position to take! Makes me sick at heart to even read such skewed thinking, sir!
Yep, and from what I hear, it's going to be real bad.
Those involved with Abramoff have copped to save their own skins and several Members are being investigated.
"...the House will return to the BIG crooks that the little crooks stole it from in '94."
I'm a supporter of anyone not-a-democrat, but it sure does seem that way, doesn't it?
I just looked to see what the DUmmies are saying. They are quoting FR posts now seem more than a little surprised at our lack of defense of this loser. Also many postings implying that we are beginning to see the light, etc. They just don't get it. We clean the trash out of a house, do not simply move out of the place. LOL
> Wrong.... This corrupt sonuvabitch was NOT "our guy"...
I agree with you that he was a slimeball. But he was a Republican. My point was that I wanted to warn people that excusing corruption as someone did here on this thread just because he's on our side of the aisle is unacceptable in the extreme.
Feeling really betrayed today. :-(
I don't know how you can stand it, but thanks for taking on the odious task of lurking the DU.
I saw a video on Fox of him resigning and apology. It was very sad. He was a great pilot in Vietnam, but you can't do what he did.
The 'Rats would put up with this kind of crooked behavior. I am glad to belong to a Party that doesn't.
Hero as a Naval Officer; scumbag as a Congressman.
Who else is in Congress?
Not anymore.
"He was honest about it when he got caught,.."
Just think about that statement for a while. ----
I can appreciate the distinction he is making.
Take for example, when Bill Clinton was caught with audio tapes proving beyond a doubt that he had witness tampered, obstructed justice, and lied while pounding his fist at us.
Some people are honest
Some are honest, but make mistakes
Some are dishonest and don't get caught
Some are dishonest, get caught, and deny
I think this guys is somewhere in the middle. I am glad he is out and think he has shamed the party. But then again, there are others like McCain, Specter, etc who continue to shame the party in their own ways.
The Defense Contractor - whoever he is - was smart...
He knew the law:
" If you're going to bribe a Congressman, bribe a Republican.
If he get caught he goes to jail ... If you bribe a Democrat and he is caught, YOU go to jail."
Check out the headline at CNN:
"Near tears, crooked congressman resigns..."
Funny. I don't remember seeing this kind of headline when a DEMOCRAT is involved in corruption.
Remember just a couple of months ago, there were politicians in New Mexico that were taking kickbacks in return for state business? It was substantial, and involved two successive state treasurers.
When I heard about this obliquely, I read the article and thought "Huh. These have GOT to be Democrats involved here." There was no name calling like "Crooked Politician", had absolutely no party affiliation identification, and, as a matter of fact, it was buried so deeply I just stumbled on top of it by accident.
Don't get me wrong-read my post #60, this guy disgraced his country and the Naval Service, but this is just another illustration of the MSM bias at its worst. And yes, I know, it is CNN, but still...
Who replaces him in this corrupted "Two-Party Cartel"? Ah heck, who gives a darn. Another sellout to the taxpayers whomever it will be. Maybe you San Diegoans could select a 3rd party candidate just to show your frustration with the cartel. (I can dream can't I?)
One currupt congressman down, 434 to go.
responses to my post make clear that i didn't make my real viewpoint clear in my post.....so here it is.
the average american cannot easily envision exactly HOW pervasive this stuff 9corruption in public office at the federal level, as well as by the bureacracy) is. It would boggle their mind, cause a tax revolt, and might even threaten the current duopoly party politics. Throughout history, government has always been synonymous with corruption, and anyone who thinks that for some reason it is different here and now (except in louisiana of course) is living in a fantasy world. Government in part exists to enrich those who wield power in it.
Didn't anyone catch the deal ron brown allegedly had with vietnam for some sort of venture (I think petroleum but don't recall)? The guy was demanding royalties from it for years out!! This is the NORM, not the exception.
as an aside to dk/coro, I live on planet earth, and have literally hundreds of modern governments illustrating the same principles every day that I list above, not to mention literally THOUSANDS of years of human history supporting my view that public corruption is the rule, not the exceoption, to some degree or other everywhere. I am not one of the crowd that thinks that despite overwhelming evidence that the two are nearly synonymous throughout time and distance, for some special reason we don't have the same stuff going on here. You can bet we do - we do not even see the tip of the iceberg, though the number of house members who retroactively disclosed paid trips by other parties should have been a tell that this stuff is endemic, and that was a fairly small dollar issue. Did I misread your post and not see sarcasm where it was meant?
I do think that there are some in office who are more interested in power than money, some who have so much money they aren't for sale per se though they may frame legislation to advance their own business interests/corporate tax breaks (actually much more expensive that a 2 million dollar bribe list), and some who do none of the above and are ethically fairly clean.
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