Political intrigue and scandal to rival the Fall of the Roman Empire




In yet another bit of bad news for the Republicans, Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham resigned his office today after pleading guilty to fraud, conspiracy to commit bribery and tax evasion in a political corruption case.

While it’s my first reaction to chalk another one up on the board, it just struck me that the opposition probably has just a many bad eggs as the GOP does. It’s just they haven’t been caught....yet.

I mean we had a Rhodes Scholar in office the last time a Democrat was in the White House and he couldn’t seem to keep himself out of trouble, so who’s to say what troubles are a brewing if and when the DNC takes over again.

Most troubling and the bigger question is: What happens to a man like Duke Cunningham, with his Happy Days Americana name? The Duke was pretty blatant about his dealings and didn’t seem to trouble to cover it up much, at first. I mean com’on, you’re there because you took an oath to faithfully defend and protect the constitution of the United States and the values and peoples that it protects.

And this is no ordinary American guy here, this guy is like an actual hero. He was, at the age of 25, one of the most highly decorated pilots in the Vietnam War and the first fighter ace of the war. He was nominated for the Medal of Honor, received the Navy Cross, two Silver Stars, fifteen Air Medals, the Purple Heart, and several other decorations and THEN went on to TEACH at the Top Gun Naval Aviation flight school at Miramar. The people of California's 50th Congressional District saw fit to re elect Duke Cunningham to eight terms in the House of Representatives where his sits on the PERMANENT Select Committee on Intelligence and the House Appropriations Committee, which is where he got in to trouble.

Even if you are arrogant enough to think you COULD get away with it, if not the shame of getting caught and what it might mean to the people who trusted you and what that kind of scandal would bring down upon you colleagues and family, I am dumbfounded as to how a man of SUCH character…A bona fided, dyed in wool, walking talking HERO, like you see in the movies god sakes….how does such a man get to the point of taking brides worth millions of dollars? I just can’t do the math! Someone, please help me!

According to the court papers, Cunningham "DEMANDED” and received at least one bribe from a defense contractor who paid an inflated price for Cunningham's home in exchange for official favors and in another he lived aboard a 42-foot boat, renamed the Duke Stir, while he was in Washington.

He DEMNDED! Holy Power Crazed Politician Batman!

He didn’t even TRY to hide it. And, because his wife, Nancy, took the illegal gains from the sale of their previous home in Del Mar Heights and used them to buy their current house, their NEW home is going to be forfeited, much as the government seizes property from drug dealers and other criminals.

So you're going to jail and your wife and kids are now gong to be homeless. This is another fine mess you've gotten yourself in to.

What happened to that noble heroic character and why did it fail him when he really needed it to keep him FROM ever getting involved in this sort of thing? Why didn’t he roll over on the people offering the bribes when they did and end it all then? I mean I had a bandit tow company hijack my car in a scam recently and I knew the CELL NUMBER of the City Attorney who was investigating those crooks and I'm a nobody. I don’t get it! Has the political beast started to eat its own? Was it like a crack addicction? Once you've taken one bride you can't stop taking them? How did you end up taking the first one (no addict ever really remembers)?

Now go here: Who were the GOP power brokers who thought Duke was worthy to sit on two of the most powerful, influencial committees in Congress? Are they guilty of sending the defense contractors to Representative Cunningham? Can they be indicted, too? THE TRUE CONSPIRACY THEORIST REARS HIS UGLY HEAD!

Mr. Cunnningham must be just as mystified, because in his press conference on the jail house steps, right before the perp walk, he says straight out "I misled my friends, family and myself. The truth is, I broke the law and disgraced my office and myself…..and now I know great shame…"

He knows what he did and could'a just did the perp walk and said, 'Hey I'm going to jail as an old man' and been done with it. If you don’t think that took character, courage and strength to stand up and admit it, think back to the last time you had to admit to a minor office mistake and how you were in knots trying to think of how you were going to tell someone. THIS GUYS IS GOING TO JAIL FOR A FEDERAL FELONY!

It made me further think about the other societal issues like AIDS in Africa, the looming 1000th Federal Execution, the homeless, working mothers, public education, healthcare for the poor and the elderly and all the other issues that are rampant because of the lack of character and heart in our country.

What has happened to our personal values? Where have were gone SO wrong and gotten so heartless and SO corrupt and that a man of PROVEN strength, courage and character...a fighter pilot…an ACE….a WAR HERO, faced and beat death on a daily basis...not even HE could withstand the temptation to enrich himself at the risk of his reputation?

Furthermore, how is it that we could have elected a convicted DUI, recovering cocaine addict, air force reserve deserter, Yale C student (which ask any Ivy Leaguer, there is no C....anything below a B is a fail) to the presidency? How can guys like Joe Biden still not be considered worthy becaseu of faux pas in his college final paper (plagiarism I think it was). How can our tales of political intrigue and scandal rival those of the Roman Empire (before it’s fall)?

It won’t be enough to win back the White House, friends. We need to win it back and do what the Republicans arrogantly shouted they would do: bring integrity back to the White House and to government as a whole. Not with speeches and grandstanding, or 'look at thems' but with determined, focused action.

As we always do at the end of each of these rants, we practice what we preach. What is your action here? What do you need to do?

Your message to your representatives and senators and news media moguls is to listen and learn from this. Let them know you are watching with a keen eye to their actions and the results, personally and professionally, of those actions.

Let them know Little Brother is watching too, and he ain’t have’in none of THAT!

To contact your elected representatives:
http://www.congress.org/congressorg/home

League of Women Voters Media email database:
Http://www.capwiz.com/lwv/dbq/media

TV news addresses:
http://digbig.com/4bqmq

Addresses for major U.S. daily publications/wire services/weekly publications: http://digbig.com/4cqge

Major publication addresses by state:
http://digbig.com/4bwxw

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