Billmon stacks snark onto Republican corruption

Justin Rood, over at TPM Muckraker describes the Hooker ring that Brent Wilkes and Mitchell Wade ran for 15 years. This is courtesy of The San Diego Union-Tribune, one of two newspapers who exposed the bribery of Randy "Duke" Cunningham. Wilkes and Wade were the bribers, and apparently the "Duke" wanted more than just money.

In his guilty plea in November, Cunningham said Wilkes, referred to as "co-conspirator No. 1," gave him more than $630,000 in cash and gifts in order to gain government contracts. Wade, known as "co-conspirator No. 2,"” also named Wilkes in his guilty plea. Wilkes has not been indicted in the case, and his companies continue to receive money from government contracts.

Several of Wilkes' former employees and business associates say he used the hospitality suites over the past 15 years to curry favor with lawmakers as well as officials with the CIA, where both Wilkes and Wade sought contracts.

Wilkes hosted parties for lawmakers and periodic poker games that included CIA officials as well as members of the House Appropriations and Intelligence committees. Cunningham, who sat on both committees, was a frequent guest, according to some of the participants in the poker games.

People who were present at the games said one of the regular players was Kyle Dustin "“Dusty"” Foggo, who has been Wilkes' best friend since the two attended junior high school in Chula Vista in the late 1960s. In October, Foggo was named the CIA's executive director, – the agency's third-highest position.

Another player was a CIA agent known as "Nine Fingers,"” so named because he lost one of his digits while on assignment.

Justin Rood also reports that current CIA Director may have been involved with the Hookers.

But this is just background. Here is a bit from Billmon:

You have to love it: Whores buying whores for whores. Even Jeff Gannon and his White House "sources" couldn't top that.

The only form of corruption the Republicans hadn't been caught in up until now has been sex. Looks like they finally got caught at that, too.

That makes the Republican Party a full-service corruption machine. One stop shopping for your politician through the Republicans. How utterly convenient.