MORE REPUBLICAN INDICTMENTS AND GUILTY PLEAS IN CUNNINGHAM CORRUPTION SCANDALS

Most people who have been following the Randy "Duke" Cunningham case have realized that Cunningham going off to jail for a decade after pleading guilty to taking millions of dollars in bribes from defense contractors while he sat on Congressional Defense and Intelligence committees, is far from the conclusion of this revolting episode of Republican rule in Washington. What about all those co-conspirators named in the indictment? What about his partners in crime, from Jerry Lewis (R-CA), John Doolittle (R-CA) and Duncan Hunter (R-CA) to Roy Blunt (R-MO) and Tom DeLay (R-TX)? And what about the actual bribers who paid the millions and got the lucrative government contracts in return?

Today the SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS is reporting that the first of those corrupt Republican contractors, Mitchell Wade has agreed to plead guilty and cooperate with federal investigators. As we approach the November elections, indictments of at least Jerry Lewis and Duncan Hunter seem likely.

Rahm Emanuel and the DCCC have been so busy underming progressives and grassroots candidates across the country-- from Christine Cegelis in Illinois, Jerry McNerney and Brett Wagner in California, Dave Lutrin in Florida to Barry Welsh in Indiana-- that they have incompetently failed to work on races in districts where there are likely to be indicted Republican incumbents. Is Louie Contreras a serious candidate in California's 41st CD-- a pretty red district whose corrupt and venal congressman will soon be joining his pal Cunningham in prison? Has Emanuel's (and Ellen Tauscher's) inept meddling in California's 11th CD-- trying to impose Steve Filson on local Democrats from above-- strengthen Richard Pombo as his grotesque little empire starts falling apart? Even the most cursory monitoring of California's Republican congressional scandal would have seen major efforts to mount effective campaigns-- starting with good recruitment-- against Lewis and Hunter. Emanuel, however, has apparently been too busy making war on Christine Cegelis. No doubt the Democrats will never get a clue about how disastrous this guy is for the party until the post-election analysis when people wonder what went wrong.

Tip of the hat to Roy at Fired Up! America for the pre-dawn alert.


UPDATE: CUNNINGHAM SCANDAL GOES CROSS-COUNTRY

The first congressmen nailed by admitted Cunningham briber, MZM ceo Mitchell Wade, as part of his plea bargain deal are... drumroll... Virginia's notorious and hypocritical bucket of sleaze, Virgil Goode, Jr. and the uber-corrupt whore-and-a-half from sunny Florida Katherine Harris. The ironically-named Goode figures prominently in Congresswomen Louise Slaughter's AMERICA FOR SALE: THE COST OF REPUBLICAN CORRUPTION. Here's the relevent excerpt (hat tip to Mushed):
"Since 2002, Representative Virgil Goode (R-VA) has received more campaign contributions from defense contractor MZM, Inc. and its employees – almost $90,000, or nearly 10% of all the money he raised – than from any other single source.  The former president of MZM is Mitchell Wade, one of the co-conspirators in the Duke Cunningham (R-CA) bribery scandal.  As a member of the Appropriations Committee, Goode inserted language creating or expanding MZM classified defense contracts in spending bills.  At one point, Goode added a $23 million dollar classified defense program for MZM that the Pentagon hadn't even requested.  In 2003, MZM-connected contributors gave Goode a total of $19,000 in the days surrounding the award of three Pentagon contracts to MZM.  In June 2005, the Pentagon revoked a $163 million MZM contract for work at the National Ground Intelligence Center in Goode's district, saying it should be open to competitive bids.  Local officials referred to this questionable project as 'Project Goode.'"