TREASON IS WAY WORSE THAN PLAIN OLE BRIBERY-- CONGRESS SHOULD TALK WITH CUNNINGHAM ABOUT IT

Yesterday we looked at an FBI report about the ongoing investigation of the Republican Culture of Corruption within the narrow scope of now jailed GOP ex-congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham. The only current member he seems to implicate-- Republicans Tom DeLay and Katherine Harris having left public office-- was Jerry Lewis. But there has always been another side of the Cunningham scandal that the media has been loathe to cover, the impact of Cunningham and other Republicans accepting bribes for information that jeopardized national security. That would be treason.

When GOP hack Pete Hoekstra (MI) was chairman of the Intelligence Committee, from which Cunningham was operating, he did all he could to protect Cunningham and other Republicans from public scrutiny. Today's Hill puts it out there for the mass media. "The Cunningham scandal," claims the Hill, " raised questions about how congressional staffers on the Intelligence Committee handled the ex-lawmaker’s requests for earmarks that were later determined to be bribery payoffs to defense contractors."

Only 5 Democrats voted to release the report to the public-- 5 progressives (Rush Holt, Anna Eshoo, Jan Schakowsky, Alcee Hastings and John Tierney)-- while the 7 more reactionary Democrats on the Intelligence Committee sided with all the Republicans to keep the reported bottled up. Someone leaked it to the L.A. Times. The report is embarrassing; tough crap. It's release should be the beginning of a chapter, not the end of a story. Greed and selfishness motivated dozens of Republicans to rush headlong into criminal activities regardless of what jeopardy their actions placed our fighting men and women and our country's security. Cunningham was never subpoenaed. He should have been. This sordid chapter in the Republican Culture of Corruption needs to be thoroughly examined-- even if it embarrasses some Democrats.