ANOTHER SIDE OF WAR PROFITEERS-- HOW REPUBLICAN POLITICIANS HAVE BECOME VERY VERY WEALTHY

I started DWT to write about the Cunningham and Ney corruption cases. I always said these two individuals-- albeit guilty as hell-- were small potatoes. And this week's U.S. News & World Report says the sprawling investigation is about to "snare some of Washington's most powerful inside players."

The Republican Culture of Corruption is about to come home to roost. (Maybe Louie Contreras does have a 70% chance of being the next congressman from CA-41 despite himself!) Federal Investigators have been putting together a case with testimony from Cunningham, Republican defense contractors/bribers Mitchell Wade and Brent Wilkes and several others caught up in what could prove to be the biggest congressional scandal in American history.

Both the defense and intelligence contracting were severely compromised by Cunningham and... well, perhaps the names will start flowing this week about which other congressional crooks and profiteers were guilty. If you've been reading DWT you already know which names to look for.

The rise and fall of Mitchell Wade offers a rare glimpse into the cutthroat world of the billion-dollar defense-contracting industry. Federal prosecutors have described in captivating detail the depth of Wade's business dealings and Cunningham's "naked avarice." The latter, they say, is "starkly framed" in one of Cunningham's office notecards. Under the congressional seal, Cunningham jotted down a "bribe menu," from which Wade "ordered" defense contracts. Some examples: The notation "16 BT 140" meant that a $16 million contract from Cunningham would cost Wade a boat called "Buoy Toy," valued at $140,000; "17 50" meant that a $17 million contract required a $50,000 bribe from Wade. After the first $340,000 in bribes, Cunningham generously offered a discount-just $25,000 for each additional $1 million in bogus earmarks. "For the better part of a decade," said prosecutors in San Diego, "Cunningham, in effect, erected a 'For Sale' sign upon our nation's capital."
And Wade was among the highest bidders. He contributed frequently to Cunningham's political action committees-often just before key votes-gave him an envelope stuffed with $6,500 in cash, and gifts that "ran the gamut," said prosecutors, from the "routine" to the "peculiar," the "audacious," the "self-indulgent," and the "truly astonishing"-including lavish meals, fancy hotel rooms, a Rolls-Royce, a yacht, rare antiques, oriental rugs, and a down payment on a luxury home.

Mitchell Wade spread the political contributions around-- wide. Although the vast majority (98%) went to Republicans, he covered bases with some Democrats too. Example: in 2004 he gave $800 to the DNC and $15,000 to the National Republican Senatorial Campaign. But the real money is what he gave to individual Republicans in the form of illegal bribes. The legal bribes are on record but how many more Cunninghams did he have on the Appropriations Committee with whom to trade cash for favors, favors that cost taxpayers millions and millions, and severely compromised national security and the safety of our troops? Well, if the big legal bribe takers are any indication of the illegal bribe takers-- Cunningham was in both categories-- look for these names first and foremost: Katherine Harris (R-FL), Rick Renzi (R-AZ), Jerry Lewis (R-CA), Duncan Hunter (R-CA), Virgil Goode (R-VA), Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL).

U.S. News reports that Virgil Goode took $46,000 in illegal "contributions" from Wade and Katherine Harris took $32,000. But their report white washes Wade's shady financial dealings with Elizabeth Dole (R-NC), pointing out they she declined a marble bust Wade offered her as a bribe, but never mentioning that she accepted several thousand dollars from him (again, public record). Did Senator Dole give Wade the kind of service Cunningham did? Not likely-- he got millions; she only got thousands.

In exchange, "year after year," federal prosecutors in San Diego wrote in one devastating passage, Cunningham consistently favored Wilkes and Wade "when forwarding special appropriation requests." Not only that, the prosecutors added, Cunningham "overrode" other lawmakers in deciding which military programs should be funded, "lobbied" to cut funding for competing programs, and "pressured" and "bullied" Pentagon officials into selecting Wade and Wilkes for contracts and giving them "the maximum amount of public funding." The contractors not only specified their coveted programs to Cunningham but even "wrote his actual requests for him" that amounted to "scripts," the prosecutors said. "In short," they concluded, "Cunningham acted exactly the way one would expect of a congressman who had been bought for more than $2.4 million."

Inside sources say Wade's new role has been that of canary. Last February at his plea bargaining hearing he read a bullshit statement of remorse written by his attorney. "I feel deep sorrow for the harm I have caused my family, friends, and former colleagues." Not a word about the taxpayers or the nation or our fighting men and women who went without needed equipment so he and other Republican slime could make millions of dollars. MZM employees told U.S. News that the remorse was all a self-serving act. "He's not repentant at all... In his mind, it's, 'I got caught.'" I can't wait to read statements of remorse from Jerry Lewis, Duncan Hunter, Virgil Goode (pictured up top with his bud, Mitchell Wade), and the guilty by reason of insanity plea from Katherine Harris.