Posted on 01/06/2006 11:45:29 AM PST by GaltMeister
Washington's power players have always bragged about being well-wired, but for disgraced former congressman Duke Cunningham, "wired" wasn't just a figure of speech. In a week when legislators are focused on the question of who else might be brought down by ex-lobbyist Jack Abramoff’s cooperation with prosecutors as he seeks lenient sentencing over his two federal guilty pleas this week, sources tell TIME that ex-Rep. Cunningham wore a wire to help investigators gather evidence against others just before copping his own plea.
Wow - Wonder who Duke had dealins with wearing a wire?
It just gets more and more interesting.
There are going to be some very pissed off congressmen in DC this weekend.
You can be damn sure there are some very nervous congresscritters over all this!
So he is a crook and a snitch!
Suddenly, nobody in Washington, DC was available for comment.
yeah, good.
no one is above the law. at least no one should be.
What I don't get is how this guy lived such an ostentatious lifestyle and nobody wondered how a congressman could afford those luxuries. Particularly in the days where the political parties put the opposition members under an electron microscope. The Dems should have discovered all this and ratted Cunningham out years ago.
When all is said and done, I hope this snowballs into a whole lot of unemployed congressment. The "professional politician" class is to corruption as a steaming cowpie is to nasty germs.
Like your tagline so much.....I sorta copied it...
Both can get stuffed; America deserves better than Republicans and democRats.
Congress members who did not utter a peep of criticism when Cunningham went down are probably now going to blast him a new one.
Maybe, John, it's because most of them live that lifestyle. A lot of them are rich to begin with; and a lot of others get that way once they reach DC.
When all is said and done, I hope this snowballs into a whole lot of unemployed congressment.
I hope so too! Throw the bums out!
Hey, if Sharpe James, Mayor of Newark can afford that lifestyle, anyone can!
The most basic online research finds plenty of newspaper articles about Newark city government under Sharpe James - most talking about how corrupt it is. With all allegations of corruption, James - who is black - blames racism, as the Bergen (New Jersey) Record described in their July 12, 1998 issue:
"In recent years, James has cried racism when the hot breath of the law was bearing down on him, threatening to expose corruption that seemed to pervade his administration. When he managed to accumulate in a relatively short time three pleasure boats (including a 50-foot yacht) and $1 million in property (including a $300,000 shore house) while earning just over $115,000-a-year, the media asked questions. James's spokeswoman shot back with this ham-handed deflection: "There are a lot of people who think that because Sharpe James is black and he's mayor to a poor city, he's not entitled to it.""
I'm afraid almost all of the congresscritters are guilty of this very thing -- one way or another. Ever wonder how these guys/gals go to DC just regular folks with an average income but leave years/decades later as millionaires?
Agreed! I sometimes think term limits would be a good thing - but then again maybe term limits would just make them stuff their pockets faster.
I guess all we can do is speak up loud and clear, and punish the crap out of crooks in all areas of government.
Granted, but that doesn't explain why the Democrats didn't notice that he was living far beyond his means. I believe it was them who finally discovered that he'd sold his house to a defense contractor at far above market, which is what got the ball rolling on this scandal, but I'd have thought he'd have been found out long before that. The only explanation that occurs to me is that maybe they don't normally bother to do oppo research on Republicans who are in extremely safe districts, and that only their recent "culture of corruption" offensive caused them to start.
the problem is, the Dem voters don't really care about this kind of corruption - only our side does.
"The current salary for rank-and-file members of the House and Senate is $158,100 per year."
That's pretty substantial to start with.
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