Cunningham has some explaining to do — Day 3

June 15, 2005

Yesterday, I noted that Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham (R-Calif.) has a bit of a problem on his hands. In 2003, he sold his house to a military contractor with business before his committee for an inflated price, ultimately leading to a $700,000 gift for the lawmaker. Shortly thereafter, Cunningham helped direct tens of millions of dollars in defense appropriations to the same contractor. It doesn’t look good.

But, never fear. Any concerns you may have about Cunningham’s potential conflicts of interests, illegal contributions, or outright bribery should be completely assuaged by the fact Tom DeLay believes Cunningham is completely innocent of wrongdoing.

House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) yesterday defended Rep. Duke Cunningham (R-Calif.) after calls from congressional Democrats to investigate the Republican appropriator for selling his San Diego home to a defense contractor whose firm had received $65 million in federal funds in 2004.

“Duke Cunningham is a hero,” DeLay said during a press briefing Tuesday. “He is an honorable man of high integrity.”

What a relief. If DeLay says nothing untoward happened here, it must be true. It’s not as if DeLay has multiple legal and ethical scandals swirling him, undermining his credibility on what, exactly, constitutes “high integrity.” Oh wait…

In related news, Josh Marshall has written up several key updates on this story. Perhaps most importantly, Josh noted that Cunningham has insisted that the defense contractor (Mitchell Wade) bought his house at a fair market value when it sold for $1.675 million. As proof, Cunningham has claimed that an “independent source” helped establish the value of the home.

Except there’s reason to believe that source was anything but independent. A real estate agent named Elizabeth Todd arranged the deal between Cunningham and Wade and set the inflated purchase price. It just so happens that Todd’s family also contributed $11,500 to Cunningham’s campaigns between July 1997 to May 2004. She also was the agent of record when Cunningham used his profits from the original sale to buy a new home for $2,550,000, for which she received a generous commission.

Tom DeLay’s assurances notwithstanding, I’d say Cunningham, Wade, and Todd should probably be hiring some lawyers right about now.

GO GET THEM!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • Larry! Cowboy! Shut up!!!! They’re Republicans; they can do anything they want.

    What is sickening in this moral swamp is that the only papers that pick up this crap are local papers. God forbid the Times or Post, or LA Times say something.

  • Hey, the under-the-radar stories are good. They tend to be much more thoroughly researched these days, and hit solidly in the communities where these politicians come from. Look at the Toledo Blade and all of their coingate coverage. If one of the nationals had picked up the story right off, it probably would have had a ‘sourcing’ problem, and the bushies could cover it up. By starting at the grass-roots, you have a relatively unimpeachable story by the time it hits big.
    This attack is perfect, just seeds in many different parts of the country slowly coming out. When they start germinating, then Dean can start connecting the dots for the stupid people out there.

  • Larry, thanks for yet one more example of Rethug hypocricy — guess we can call this the “Limbaugh” defense!!

    PA exile, take heart. Rethugs have sunk political integrity to such lows that, like a submarine having gone too deep and stayed there too long, pressure leaks are bursting out all over the place. Soon the damn submarine will implode on itself due to relentless pressure of the progressive blogosphere, some still-remaining media that practices honest journalism, and the fundamental decency of the American people.

    The media IS starting to take notice, albeit at the local level as you lamented. Yet slowly AND steadily the stories are working their way up to the larger regional and even national papers (case in point: the DSM took over a month to hit the NYT and WaPo, but it is now there and it isn’t going away).

    If you don’t like the submarine analogy, then try the spring mudslides in California. Each little story of Rethug mendacity is like a slow trickle of water down the mountainside. There are so many little trickles — because people are waking up to the real Rethug and American Taliban agenda — that soon there will be a torrent of water … and the ground under the Rethugs will eventually give way. THEN we will see it like Watergate, where the Rethugs will be even more desperate to keep up the charade, only they will have been exposed and the American people will take back their country.

    Okay, I admit that this may be too optimistic based on the empirical data to date, but the trend is undeniable. It’s like starting a camp fire in the cold rain; we have more and more puffs of smoke, and soon the fire will be roaring IF we are diligent at nurturing and feeding the flames!! [sorry, I couldn’t resist one more analogy!!!]

  • All it takes is pulling the area real-estate listings and determine the “comps”, or comparable values. I would find it hard to believe that a property in Del Mar would devalue $700K in just a couple months (this being one of the ares in So Cal in which property values increased an average of 20% over the last year). Or certainly that a buyer would not do their own checking of comps. I admired Cunningham as a fighter pilot, naval aviator ace in Viet Nam, and am appreciative that my brother’s artwork hangs in his offices in Diego and DC, but loathe what he has become.

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