Saturday - March 04, 2006

Off To The Big House

The thing that really makes me mad as hell about this story is that the money was siphoned off of defense contracts and contracts were let for things the military didn’t need or want. By his actions, the military has been shortchanged and money wasted at a time when that is the last thing a Congressman should even be thinking of. That, to me, makes his crime practically treasonous. Yet, the taxpayers will continue to pay his pension ....

Former GOP Lawmaker Gets 8 Years
Cunningham Also Must Pay Back Millions for Bribery and Tax Offenses
Saturday, March 4, 2006

SAN DIEGO (WASHINGTON POST)

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.

Appearing much thinner than he did last fall, Cunningham choked up as he addressed the judge. “No man has ever been more sorry,” he said. “I made a very wrong turn. I rationalized decisions I knew were wrong. I did that, sir.”

Burns said the amount of money Cunningham took “emasculates” previous bribery crimes. Noting that he, too, raised a family on a government salary, the judge said he understood wanting “the good things in life.” But Burns added: “You weren’t wet. You weren’t cold. You weren’t hungry, and yet you did these things.”

In a related development, the CIA’s inspector general is looking into whether Kyle “Dusty” Foggo, the agency’s executive director and its third-ranking official, arranged for any contracts to be given to companies associated with Brent Wilkes, one of the contractors identified as having made payments to Cunningham. Foggo, a senior intelligence officer handling complex clandestine contracts, is an old friend of Wilkes from their high school and college days. The investigation was first reported by Newsweek.

- Read the rest and full details of this story here ...

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. With his 21 years of Navy duty added to that total, his annual pension would be about $64,400, Sepp said.

Memo: Isn’t it great how the Washington Post lets you know right up top in the headline that it was a Republican? If Cunningham had been a Democrat, it would have read “Former Lawmaker Gets 8 years” and no mention anywhere in the article of party affiliation. Isn’t the Liberal media a real piece of work?

Posted by The Skipper     on 03/04/2006 at 08:12 AM   
Filed Under: • Crime • Outrageous • Politics •  
• Comments (10) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

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Not that very many people ever read this far down, but this blog was the creation of Allan Kelly and his friend Vilmar. Vilmar moved on to his own blog some time ago, and Allan ran this place alone until his sudden and unexpected death partway through 2006. We all miss him. A lot. Even though he is gone this site will always still be more than a little bit his. We who are left to carry on the BMEWS tradition owe him a great debt of gratitude, and we hope to be able to pay that back by following his last advice to us all:

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It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.

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