DON'T LET ANYONE TELL YOU CUNNINGHAM WAS A PATRIOT. HE WAS A SELF-SERVING RIGHT-WING GREED BALL WHOSE LIFE WAS ALL ABOUT SELFISHNESS

I was so pissed off yesterday when my friend Cynthia told me that the L.A. TIMES, lately having made a sharp rightward turn editorially, had offered up a truly lame excuse for admitted bribe-taker Randy "Duke" Cunningham's outrageous and contemptible behavior. And when I researched the basis of their absurd comments, I noticed that much of the right-wing, corporate mass media has been putting forward or at least implying the exact same talking point! I don't know if they're all plagiarizing each other or this is part of a coordinated campaign for Bush's eventual pardon of the fake patriot. (More on fake patriotism below.)

"In the end," the L.A. TIMES pontificated without any substantiation whatsoever, "what puzzles most of those who knew Cunningham [I suppose they took a poll; NOT] is how a man who had so much going for him could have gotten into such a mess. Some think [these 2 words always means the writer and editor are conspiring to get their point of view into a story] it began in 1998, when he underwent surgery for prostate cancer. Friends say the experience left him physically weakened and emotionally shaken. [Big revelation in investigative journalism? That is what happens after a cancer treatment.] Convinced that he would not enjoy a long life, this theory goes [rotflmao-- this is journalism? Maybe they should fire the editor over there and bring back Bob Scheer to save their asses before its too late.] Cunningham decided to maximize the pleasure of whatever time he had left."

This is really pathetic! I was also diagnosed and treated for prostate cancer. It didn't drive me to betray my country or steal money. It didn't drive me to scream violent and vicious epithets at gay people and elderly sick people. It didn't drive me to conspire with a rogues gallery of Republican crooks to defraud America out of hundreds of millions of dollars. In fact, it made me more contemplative and thoughtful about the meaning of life and getting my soul straight.

According to a report from MSNBC, after Cunningham was diagnosed with prostate cancer he "went on a strange jag while addressing some elderly cancer patients at Alvarado Hospital near San Diego. He made an obscene gesture and said 'fuck you to a World War II vet who suggested that defense budgets be lowered. He said that no man would enjoy prostate-cancer treatments, 'unless maybe you're Barney Frank.'" But that wasn't some new twist in his vile personality. The grossly overweight, hard drinking Cunningham had been behaving boorishly for a very long time. "In 1992 he declared that the Democratic leadership 'ought to be lined up and shot. I would have no hesitation about lining them up and shooting them.' In 1995, Capitol police had to break up a scuffle with Democratic Congressman James Moran, and Cunningham once challenged another Democrat, David Obey, to a fistfight on the House floor. The L.A. TIMES might come up with an excuse for this behavior too-- maybe an ingrown toenail?

Never a thinker of any sort, he's always been a complete hypocrite and was certain that he and his were above the law. Cunningham was a lying sack of shit who tried persuading people that Tom Cruise's character in TOP GUN was based on him-- not a grain of truth in it-- and he was always the posterboy for self-entitlement. An aggressive and loudmouthed supporter of mandatory-minimum jail sentences for drug offenders (minorities in his feeble and narrow mind), in 1997 he successfully begged a federal judge for leniency when his son was arrested for flying 400 pounds of marijuana across the country. Right-wingers like making harsh rules for other peoples' children. His son is a wealthy white boy; what do these rules have to do with him?

Cunningham was a bully who looked for fear in people and exploited it. He threw his considerable weight around-- as a Republican big shot-- and forced the Pentagon to buy expensive, systems they neither wanted nor needed, from "business associates" of his who gave him and other GOP lawmakers (like Jerry Lewis, Duncan Hunter and Tom DeLay) gigantic kickbacks. He terrorized low ranking government bureaucrats to get them to do his bidding.

Karl Rove, Dick Cheney, Ann Coulter, John McCain, Jean Schmidt, George Bush, Bill O'Reilly are lowlife slime that can only debate by "swift-boating" people they disagree with. Sunday "straight-talking, non-partisan" McCain attacked decorated war hero Jack Murtha for being old and "too emotional" for advocating that the U.S. extricate itself from Iraq. McCain (aged 69) patronized Murtha as "lovable" but "not a big thinker," saying "as we get older, we get more sentimental." More subtle than Mean Jean "Piece of" Schmidt" calling him a coward but... McCain has been around longer and has always been a lot more sneaky and sly than your garden variety wingnut. But have you heard one Democrat challenge the traitorous Cunningham's medals and his claims to fame the way the Republicans have attacked Kerry and Murtha. No, and you won't. That's another way the two parties tend to be different from each other.


WEDNESDAY MORNING: TIME FOR TODAY'S DUKE CUNNINGHAM UPDATE:

Today's right-leaning newspaper, the L.A. TIMES is reporting that the IRS is holding a big old garage sale for San Diego criminal/ex-Far Right Congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham's graft haul. "The Persian rugs, silver candelabra, vases, armoires, French commode, end tables, mirrors, buffet table, leather sofa, sleigh-style bed and custom oak and leaded-glass doors once adorned Randy 'Duke' Cunningham's 8,000-square-foot mansion in Rancho Santa Fe. On Tuesday, they were spread across the concrete floor of a nondescript warehouse here, displayed by the Internal Revenue Service near crates of possessions seized from convicted drug dealers and financial finaglers. The Cunningham goods will be sold at auction next year under the government's asset-forfeiture program. 'Some people like opulence,' said appraiser Dave McPheeters as he surveyed the expensive furnishings that contributed to the loss of Cunningham's reputation, his seat in Congress, and, soon, his freedom. In his plea agreement with federal prosecutors, Cunningham admitted that the goods were given to him by military contractors as bribes."

Although Cunningham faces a 10 year prison sentence, no one expects the well-connected Republican insider with potentially explosive testimony he could give that would wreck the Republican Party for a generation, to serve much time at all. Bush refuses to rule out pardons for convicted Republican criminals and traitors.