Some of you may feel disappointed that scandals in the modern Republican era have mostly involved corrupting the levers of government for profit and partisan gain. Where’s the sex? You almost miss the days when reputable papers ran red with tales of Bill Clinton, Bob Packwood and Newt Gingrich crossing swords. Ken Starr’s angry 500-page coda practically came with a brown paper wrapper. There’s something cold about a party that transgresses for profit/partisan gain, and never for sex.
It appears that Randy “Duke” Cunningham, the most awe-inspiringly corrupt politician in recent memory, and his equally-audacious defense-contracting partner-in-crime Mitchell Wade have ended our long, sad drought of illicit government sex. From today’s WSJ:
Federal prosecutors are investigating whether two contractors implicated in the bribery of former Rep. Randall “Duke” Cunningham supplied him with prostitutes and free use of a limousine and hotel suites, pursuing evidence that could broaden their long-running inquiry.
Besides scrutinizing the prostitution scheme for evidence that might implicate contractor Brent Wilkes, investigators are focusing on whether any other members of Congress, or their staffs, may also have used the same free services, though it isn’t clear whether investigators have turned up anything to implicate others.
…Meanwhile, prosecutors are looking at whether they can make corruption cases against other lawmakers based on Mr. Wilkes’s campaign contributions to them. But lawyers expert in campaign-finance and criminal law say such cases are far more difficult to prove than those involving outright bribery. The government must show a direct “quid pro quo” that a lawmaker has taken action on a particular bill solely because of a campaign contribution.
Proof of the prostitution scheme, on the other hand, could provide potentially damaging evidence that Mr. Wilkes had taken illegal steps in exchange for legislative favors, people involved in the investigation said.
I doubt that MZM, Inc. kept an entire suite of “hospitality rooms” at the Watergate Hotel exclusively for Duke Cunningham. If this story breaks further somebody will have some ‘splaining to do to their “family values” constituency.
BTW, of course it had to be the Watergate.
Krista
Icky.
Pb
Jeff Gannon, anyone? Jack Ryan? Rick Perry, perhaps? And let’s not forget the Franklin scandal…
The Other Steve
There’s been plenty of pedophiles and other bizarre behavior.
God, I’ll have to go look it up, but as I recall one of the “Family Values” preachers was accused of anal rape against his ex-wife in divorce proceedings.
There’s been plenty of good old-fashioned deviant behavior from these guys.
Ancient Purple
I wonder if Ken Starr is available for an investigation. Anyone have a spare $40 million to investigate penises?
LITBMueller
Yes, but, were they female or male prostitutes? Imagine if this was something like the Craig Spence scandal from the 80’s?
Pb
LITBMueller, that’s the one; also called the Franklin scandal.
Pb
The Other Steve,
Good call. Recently, there were those Homeland Security guys, for one.
Mr Furious
Look it up Steve, I remember what you’re talking about, but not specifically. Isn’t he a FDA guy or an appointee for something?
tBone
Who cares? It was free, so it really wasn’t prostitution, now was it? Besides, our Republican congressmen are waging a heroic effort to keep our country safe, despite being actively opposed by the terrorist-sympathizing liberals and MSM at every turn. They have a tough job, and sometimes they need some stress relief. The so-called “prostitutes” were just doing their patriotic duty.
You moonbats try to turn everything into a Federal case.
Pb
Mr Furious,
Good memory! Apparently it was Dr. W. David Hager, “a prominent obstetrician-gynecologist and Bush Administration appointee to the Advisory Committee for Reproductive Health Drugs in the Food and Drug Administration”. He’s also a moralistic Christian conservative who allegedly anally raped his wife over a period of 7 years.
tBone
Just another good Christian man unfairly crucified by the liberal media.
Krista
Goes to show you the state of medicine in the US. Even the Ob-Gyns don’t know where it’s supposed to go.
Krista
Seriously though, what a miserable scumbag. I just read the article, and I’m seriously surprised that she did not murder him.
Steve
I encourage my wife to read about such people, in order to keep the bar low for myself.
ppGaz
Boy, this makes you long for the days when government stupidity just meant venal corruption, money grabbing, and sex.
So we hired folks who said they’d “restore honor” and got a failed war, widespread government ineptitude, destruction of civil liberties, spying on American citizens, torture, crass politicization of the intelligence agencies, abuse of intelligence, crushing national debt, unprecedented pork barrel spending, AND venal corruption and sex.
Hmm.
JoeTx
A quote by the good doctor:
emmmm hummmmm, yeah right!!!
The Other Steve
Yeah. David Hager! That’s the guy.
What a fucking miserable scumbag. Makes Jack Ryan look like a nice guy by comparison… and trying to manipulate your actress wife into having public sex is pretty damn pathetic.
Then you need to read this. Relationship advice of Dump The MotherFucker Already.
He’s extended his theme to… this
Brian
If he got some side dishes, that’s between him and his wife. I could care less. FDR and MLK had mistresses, Clinton had who-knows-how-many other women, Kennedy was a notorious womanizer, and I say Good for them! It’s between them and their spouses. Just run the country. Maybe if Bush was getting some more poon he’d straighten out his priorities (no pun intended).
The culture of corruption is another matter, and it’s not confined to Republican’s like Duke. Added to the list just this week are Matt Brown (Sec State from Rhode Island) and Senator Debbie Stabenow from Michigan. Matt Brown was apparently championing gov’t and campaign finance reform, but no longer.
Sex is not important to me. Fuck like a bunny for all I care; just don’t whisper state secrets into her ear while cuddling. The corruption revealed by Duke C. is what’s poisonous in our political system, and it crosses both parties.
Steve
You think you have a Debbie Stabenow scandal? Good luck pushing that one. I hope it’s not a sex scandal!
Brian
WTF are you talking about? The context was “culture of corruption”, and Ms. Stabenow had taken contributions from Abramoff-related tribes, and later intervened on their behalf. I said nothing about scandal, but if you take all of the DeLays and Stabenows together, I think you have something scandalous.
ppGaz
You misspelled “Republicans” there Mr. Spoofdirtbag. Your version is the possessive, not the plural.
Are you just writing so many characters these days that you can’t pay attention to simple grammatical constructs, or …?
Oh BTW, your assertion that corruption crosses party lines is so original … isn’t there some kind of prize we can put you in for? I mean, that’s brilliant work. I can see you getting a job in Washington.
Mt. St. Helens, Washington, as a parking attendant, but nonetheless, a job in Washington.
Brian
Oh, you mean like this…..
Brilliant insight. Biting commentary. Original angle. Bulletproof opinion.
You’ve now received your token response for the day.
ppGaz
Aw, Brian, don’t hide your little light under a bushel!
Defend your man! If you think Bush deserves better than my comment, then make your case!
What’s the matter, don’t you have any ideas of your own?
stickler
Why would you want to inflict a moron like “Brian” on a perfectly wonderful volcano?
Up here we’re pretty defensive about our volcanoes. Letting a moron park cars on this one wouldn’t go over well.
ppGaz
After the way that one behaved, I should think so!
No offense to WA, though. I think Brian is happily ensconced in SoCal.
demimondian
Hey! ppG — no messing with our pet volcanoes, man. We take pride in Mt. St. Helens — it’s how we show that there really is violence in Seattle.
Nikki
Uh…that rave killer did that for ya’ll quite adequately.
SeesThroughIt
POTD
By the way, somebody repost the link to the page about all the “family values Republicans” who are also pedophiles. That’s pretty damning stuff.
The Other Steve
Brian, let’s go through this…
Matt Brown – Questionable skirting rules of campaign contributions. Quit race when his support ran out as people moved away from him. Where’s the culture?
Stabenow – The Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe of Michigan donated to a Michigan Senator. And a Michigan Senator may have acted on behalf of a Michigan Tribe? Man, you’re really grasping for straws on that one.
The Other Steve
I see Brian’s purpose. It’s typical Republicanism. To confuse the boundaries of right and wrong, so as to whitewash his parties wrong actions.
This shit doesn’t fly in the heartland.
Steve
Stabenow and Carl Levin are about as clean as they come.
The allegation is that Abramoff bribed Republican Senator Conrad Burns to act on a request that had been submitted to him by Stabenow and Levin, on behalf of a Michigan tribe. Somehow that proves that the whiff of scandal is surrounding Stabenow and Levin… at least if you’re a partisan who desperately wants to believe.
Show me any evidence whatsoever of a quid pro quo and you have something. Otherwise, you really don’t.
Faux News
Brian continues to make me pine for the days of scs.
As stated previously by some wag, perhaps scs is somewhere pining for the fjords :-)
Brian
Predictable as always.
There are good leaks (D), and bad leaks (R).
There is good corruption (D), and bad corruption (R).
I was very hard on Tom DeLay back when there were posts on him. I make no excuses for Abramoff’s network of Republicans, and make none for Democrats, either.
ppGaz
I have it 5:1 that Brian and scs are written by the same person.
The Other Steve
How is something good corruption when it’s not corruption?
Basically you are arguing that all campaign contributions amount to corruption, a premise I summarily reject.
It wouldn’t matter to me if you were a Democrat, I’d still reject your stupid argument.
And that’s what makes me consistent, and you a partisan hack. If it were a Republican in the same situation, you’d be defending her.
The Other Steve
More Sex! Get your sex on!
TPM Muckraker is reporting Goss might be connected to the Watergate parties.
This would be terribly funny, if true.
VidaLoca
Harpers confirming it. Also Wall Street Journal.
This must be what toxic schaudenfreude overload feels like.
ppGaz
Good lord, it just gets better and better with these guys.
I’m stocking up on popcorn. This promises to be a very entertaining year.
JoeTx
sex outside of marriage is morally wrong, but the damage is not moral, its to national security. Anything that puts you in a compromised position and makes you a subject of blackmail is the problem.
Maybe more republicans will wake up now and see the corruption most of us have seen for the past 5 years. It wasn’t enough to steal elections, out cia operatives, fight an unnecessary war, continually enact corporate friendly legislation, hand billions over to political cronies, cut taxes for the rich, cut aid to education and medicare and spend our tax dollars like drunken sailors in port, but now they can see the moral corruption and all of a sudden it might actually matter to them….
VidaLoca
Joe,
Nah. It’ll go like this: “Everybody knows that most hookers are Democrats! It was a plot! By the hookers! And the Democrats! To bring down Congress! Yeah, that’s it! Besides, Clinton did it too! It’s all Clinton’s fault!”
You can almost fill in the blanks…
gratefulcub
I am quite the cynic when it comes to the American people getting something right, but I still think this is different. Not for the reason JoeTx gave, which is the reason everyone should care. It is that this is simple. Hookers for contracts.
The NSA spying issue is tough to explain to someone that doesn’t care much for conversations regarding civil liberties and the importance of protecting them. They are just tapping terrorists is a good enough reason for most. If Glen Greenwald could spend an hour in a locked room with them, they would change their mind (most of them).
Who misrepresented the intelligence? That can be spun either way.
Plame? Was she convert, was Wilson the real traitor, etc. It can be spun.
Torture? A few grunts, bad apples.
Those that pay close attention to these topics know the truth, but most people don’t want to spend the time. Not because they don’t care, but because it isn’t interesting to them. This will be.
Hookers for defense contracts. Congressmen, who like to call Ds traitors, were being influenced by defense contractors with hookers. If I were asked to create the perfect story for democrats, this would be it.
Reporters were scared of the 70% pres, they were even scared of the 51% pres, even the 40% pres. Taking on the party of the 35% pres 22% congress looks like Pulitzer prize material.
They aren’t scared of being Rathered any longer, and they all know that sex sells.
And, only the dead enders care what Clinton did at this point.
JoeTx
The subject of Hookers is much easier to fit into a sound bite, thats for sure!
Porter Goss once said, “Bring me a blue dress and a DNA sample and I’ll investigate.” I wonder if any of the hookers wore blue???????
VidaLoca
“Hookers, bitches”!
Obsidian Wings has an article on this, POTD there:
I am just giddy with anticipation…