Disgraced Congressman 'Wore a Wire'

Time Magazine ^ | Jan. 06, 2006 | TIMOTHY J. BURGER

[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.

[wolfcreek]

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.


You have to be pretty well off just to run for Congress. Definately not a poor man's game!

[Dr. Bogus Pachysandra]

Looks like there may be some mob connections involved in the SunCruz deal.

[Congressman Billybob]

The press is playing up the Abramoff Affair as if it were the greatest scandal ever, in political fund-raising. It isn't even the greatest scandal this week. Click below for the answer to that apparent contradiction.

Congressman Billybob

Latest column: "A Tale of Three Scandals: Abramoff, Sharpton, and Clinton"

[boomop1]

Gives a new meaning to term limits.

[conservative barking moonbat]

At least he wasn't wearing blue velvet.

[okie01]

When all is said and done, I hope this snowballs into a whole lot of unemployed congressment.

Would anybody have any objections to 535 new Congressmen and Senators, selected at random from the U.S. Census?

[WhiteGuy]

Best Idea I've heard all day.

[SoCalPol]

Thanks for the ping. It get more interesting.

[BluesDuke]

The press is playing up the Abramoff Affair as if it were the greatest scandal ever, in political fund-raising. It isn't even the greatest scandal this week.

That's what the Journal said, in a paragraph I cited (and agree with) above:

This isn't to say we agree with the media hype that the Abramoff scandal is of "historic proportions." That's true only if your "history" starts around 1994, after Jim Wright sold his "book" in bulk to the Teamsters, after Tony Coelho of "Honest Graft" fame, after Abscam, the Keating Five, Clark Clifford and BCCI, and any number of other famous episodes of Capitol Hill sleaze. Mr. Abramoff and his pals are stock Beltway characters.

The "stock Beltway characters" part should be the more troublesome part, of course. Which harks back to my comment earlier, about when (and, perhaps implicitly, how long) it will be before we cease to see even things at the level of l'affaire Abramoff. Begin by eroding the attitude, still a prevelant infestation, that to everything there is and must be a political solution or place.

[WhiteGuy]

See post 122

and

check out www.debbieschlussel.com

[WhiteGuy]

We should be relying on Dems to keep Congress honest??? What about the House Ethics Committee? Shouldn't Repubs be demanding some integrity amongst their ranks??


Indeed. The gop promised us that they would end corruption.

Another lie?

[af_vet_rr]

We could work for a law that forbids adding anything to a piece of legislation which is not directly within the scope and subject of that legislation -- in otherwords, no hidden or last-minute riders, language and admentments to sneak in bridges to nowhere, or to force acceptance of a bill of rights for terrorists, or to name some podunk building after Senator Nonothing.

It would be a lot harder for them to defend their voting record, which is why you will never see such a law.

Right now they can pass every bit of pork they want, and if we try to call them on it, they have the excuse of "I was voting just for this part of the bill - it's not my fault that other people attached pork to the bill".

[Wolfstar]

...which is why you will never see such a law.

Nope. We will never see such a law as long as the people don't rise up and make it happen. A tuned out and largely disinterested public makes these kinds of shennanigans by Congress possible.

[littleleaguemom]

The FBI did not start investigating Duke until after the San Diego Union-Tribune published a story about the house sale. He eventually pleaded to taking bribes back to 2001. If everyone knew he was already in trouble, who would be dumb enough to talk to him about anything dicey, wire or no wire?

[Rakkasan1]

I remember when the "savior of the little guy", Paul Wellstone, was all for term limits and promised the public he'd do one term. that didn't last long.

I'd love to see mandated term limits.

[oceanview]

for sure, the level of wrongdoing by Abramoff with respect to how he swindled money from his clients (for himself mind you) is massive.

but consider this - how many americans commit tax fraud? alot. a whole lot. how many small business owners write off personal expenses as business expenses? alot. how many small business owners employ illegal workers? alot. many of these same people make campaign contributions of varying value. are the politicians they donate to responsible in any way for the tax fraud or employment law violations committed by their donors? no way, that bar would be way too high.

let's see who actually gets indicted.

[Criminal Number 18F]

Good points from WSJ. And then you look at who the Republicans in the House are lining up to replace DeLay: John Boehner.

Boehner is completely in the pocket of K Street lobbyists, notably tobacco lobbyists. Another name being mentioned, Roy Blunt, the acting Majority Leader, is an even worse case: Blunt ditched his wife of 30 years to take up with one of the party girls provided for him by Big Tobacco's K Street puppetmasters, and now she's Mrs. Blunt.

That's sure showing how concerned we are about perceived corruption, isn't it?

Either of these guys as majority leader is a ticket to being Minority Leader in the next Congress. And neither of these guys would care, as long as the coins keep dropping into their slots.

Unfortunately the Republican faction of the 535 crooks and scumbags who meet to rifle the nation's pockets in the Capitol has more affection for the Democratic faction of the crooks and scumbags; and neither of them has anything but contempt for us, the galley slaves on their personal pleasure cruise.

d.o.l.

Criminal Number 18F

[sgtbono2002]

Thats what I was thinking. Not that I dont want all of these crooks caught, but nobody likes a snitch.

[BlackbirdSST]

It's going to be a whole lotta fun watching the two Big Stupid Government parties try to spin this against each other. Both can get stuffed; America deserves better than Republicans and democRats.

I'm buying the beer Hank! Blackbird.