Saturday, March 04, 2006
Time For "Dukestir" To Pay The Piper
In a day that the "Dukestir" had doubtlessly hoped would never come, a trial judge pronounced his fate.
Former congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham, a decorated fighter pilot in Vietnam who admitted taking $2.4 million in bribes from two defense contractors, was sentenced Friday to eight years and four months in federal prison for selling his office.U.S. District Judge Larry A. Burns imposed the sentence after prosecutors argued for the maximum 10 years and defense attorneys suggested that six years was enough because Cunningham, 64, is suffering from various physical ailments, as well as depression. The California Republican resigned from Congress after pleading guilty to tax evasion and conspiracy to commit bribery in November.
A thoroughly modern politician:
Cunningham's greed was unparalleled, according to prosecutors, who detailed in two pre-sentencing memos what they would have presented at trial.
One included a detailed list -- with pictures -- of the house, boat, cars, antiques, rugs and other bribes he took over the past five years. It contained a copy of a "bribe menu" on Cunningham's personal note card that signified he would trade $1 million of federal funding for $50,000, and then offer a discount of $25,000 per million once he had collected $200,000.
In return, Cunningham admitting using his seats on the appropriations and intelligence committees to earmark funding for programs intended for the companies of Mitchell J. Wade and (Brent Wilkes, one of the contractors identified as having made payments to Cunningham). He then "bullied and hectored" Pentagon officials to ensure their firms, MZM Inc. and ADCS Inc., were awarded federal contracts, the government said...
Thomas E. Mann, an expert on Congress at the Brookings Institution, said Friday that "we haven't seen anything like" the magnitude and duration of Cunningham's corruption since the Teapot Dome scandal of the 1920s...
When the GOP took over the House in 1995, (Cunningham) used his committee seats to earmark funds for Wade and Wilkes. Wilkes's company collected at least $80 million in federal contracts, and Wade's was awarded more than $150 million in the past three years.
Cunningham's downfall began last June when the San Diego Union-Tribune reported that Wade had bought the lawmaker's home near San Diego for $1.675 million and sold it months later at a $700,000 loss. Cunningham used the profits -- after Wade sent him a $115,100 check to pay the capital gains tax -- to buy a $2.55 million mansion in nearby Rancho Santa Fe. That was followed by a disclosure that Cunningham was living rent-free while in Washington on Wade's yacht, the Duke-Stir.
There is a bright side to Cunningham's ordeal:
Despite the conviction, Cunningham will get a congressional pension. Peter Sepp, spokesman for the National Taxpayers Union, estimated that Cunningham's 15 years in the House will make him eligible for about $36,000 a year.
