Summary of Stories on crooked Republican congressman Duke Cunningham

Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo continues to report the latest on the purchase of Congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham by the Defense Contractor Wade Mitchell. Earlier I summarized his reports on the unfolding story in Crooks in Congress. This is an update to bring it all in one location.

• 06-18-05 San Diego Union-Tribune - Report that a federal grand jury has begun to look into the sale of Congressman Cunningham's house to Defense Contractor Wade Mitchell. Referred from Talking Points Memo.


• 06-19-05 Boston globe - "Duke" lives on a yacht berthed on the Potomac owned by the president of a defense firm whose contracts Cunningham has supported. Referred from Talking Points Memo.


• 06-20-05 Talking points Memo - Rep. Pete Stark runs satirical advertisement about "Duke" Cunningham's home sale. See the advertisement through the link at talking points memo.


• 06-20-05 Talking Points Memo - "Duke"Cunningham reports on the floor of the House that he had just been served with four subpoenas.


• 06-21-05 Talking points Memo - The Defense Contractor Wade Mitchell was forcing his employees to make political contributions to "Duke" and other Republicans. Many of the recipients are listed.


• 06-21-05 Talking Points Memo - Josh Marshall discusses the fact that while the story has been out for ten days, neither "Duke" Cunningham nor Mitchell Wade has made any public statement in their defense.


• 06-21-05 Talking points Memo Josh reports that Republican Congressman Darrell Issa, R-Vista defended "Duke" to the North County Times. The problem, according to Issa, was that Mitchell Wade got a real estate agent to suggest a good price for "Duke's" home. "Duke" was merely an honorable Congressman who did not realize he was being bribed. [Issa is the politician who financed the California recall election that removed Gray Davis and elected Arnold Schwartzenegger. Issa was horribly disappointed that he didn't get the job.]


• 06-21-05 Talking Points Memo - Josh discusses why Wade Mitchell was buying "Duke". Mitchell is a defense contractor providing a mix of (often classified) defense, homeland security and intelligence-related products or services to the government agencies.


• 06-22-05 Talking points Memo Josh discusses what "Duke" can offer Mitchell Wade that is worth over a million dollars.


• 06-22-05 Talking points Memo - Josh refers to some stories regarding what "Duke" did for his money. He also refers to a story announcing that Mitchell Wade resigned as CEO of the Defense Contracting company he established, MZM.


• 06-23-05 Talking Points Memo - Josh reports that the LA Times has the story that the house "Duke" Cunningham bought for $2.5 million is a 8,000 square foot home in Rancho Sante Fe. The home was sold by Douglas Powanda, previously an executive of Peregrine Systems and currently one of eight executives under indictment by a federal grand jury and waiting trial n an alleged multibillion-dollar securities fraud.


• 06-23-05 Talking Points Memo - The rules for the House Ethics Committee require that complaints can be made only by current House members and no House members can be found to file a complaint. The Republicans obviously don't want to investigate one of their own, and the Democrats don't want to start a tit-for-tat set of investigations in which each party attempts to destroy the members of the other party through ethics complaints.


• 06-23-05 Talking Points Memo - "Duke" Cunningham explains that he was paying the dock fees for the 40 foot yacht belonging to Mitchell Wade that he lived on in Washington. Josh points out that those fees were well below the level of rent for a cheap Washington apartment.


• 06-23-05 Talking Points Memo - Josh reports that the 7628 sq ft house in Rancho Sante Fe that "Duke" purchased for $2.5 million cash is in the same block as a 5290 sq ft home that a few months earlier sold for $3.45 million. It appears that Duke got a real good deal.


• 06-23-05 Talking Points Memo Josh reports that the boat owned by Mitchell Wade on which he lived in Washington, D.C. was "...built in 1987 by Carver Boat Corp. Length is 42.2 ft. Fiberglass hull. Gross Tonnage 34, Net Tonnage 27."


• 06-24-05 Talking points Memo "The house at 7150 Via Del Charro [next door to "Duke" Cunningham] is on sale for a mere $5 million."


• 06-24-05 Talking Points Memo - By Josh's estimate, "Duke" Cunningham has paid $357 a month in lieu of rent for the last 14 months to live on Mitchell Wade's yacht.


• 06-24-05 Talking points memo - Josh kindly offers a picture of a yacht similar to the $130,000 yacht "Duke" has been living on here.


• 06-24-05 Talking Points Memo - Josh points out that his earlier statement that the indictee, Douglas Powanda, was not in fact the third-largest contributor to "Duke" Cunningham. The confusion was that Powanda's previous employer was Perigrine Software, and the contributor is the unrelated company, Peregrine Semiconductor.


• 06-25-05 Talking Points Memo - Josh reports that "Duke" has hired lawyer K. Lee Blalack. This is the same attorney that "Duke" previously hired to defend himself in the "...2003 ethics case that alleged Cunningham and other lawmakers pressured Rep. Nick Smith to vote in favor of a Medicare reform bill." (reported by the North County Times.)

Is this simply the "Politics of Personal Destruction" with a media attack on an otherwise decent politician? Not likely. Randy "Duke" Cunningham is a poster child for Republican political sleaze. He got not one, but two sweetheart deals from a Defense Contractor, Mitchell Wade. One was $700,000 in overpayment for the house, based on an estimate by a person who had never before sold a house. The other was the essentially free rent on the yacht in Washingon, D.C. Wades' business took off right after the purchase of Cunninghams' home.

Then there was the clear bargain purchase on the home in Rancho Sante fe that the same real estate person brokered for $2.5 million. That was her first ever sale as a real estate person, the price was sharply below what smaller homes in the same area were going for, and it was purchased from an individual currently under indictment and waiting trial for fraud.

This is another example of the Republican sale of the government to the highest bidders. Cunningham got greedy and sloppy.

I wonder if Tom DeLay returns his phone calls?