cunningham

I used to think I could write a good headline

But I bow to the master:

Hooker: Duke Cunningham Fed Me Grapes in Hot Tub

Then the subhed just clinches it:  Read more 

Lifestyles of the Fascist and Degenerate

Vanity Fair details the adventures of The Duke-Stir and his merry band of fellow travelers:

Every time Wilkes was asked by Tom Casey, a California defense contractor who would eventually work with him, how he got to be so friendly with Lowery and other congressmen, the answer was always the same, Casey tells me: “Honduras.” Specifically, Casey adds, Wilkes described sexual encounters between congressmen and women from Honduran villages.

More scenes from the Fall of the Great Empire:

“What these revelations provide is a window into Babylon or the last stages of Rome,” explains a source with knowledge of the multiple ongoing investigations. “Many felonies went undetected because in the Defense Department a lot goes on in secret, and these crimes grew in the shadow of both 9/11 and one-party rule—with little scrutiny. So what you’re looking at is a world where money, secrecy, sex, and indulgence were all in play. Where everyone is guilty of something.”

Family Values, America, Mom and Apple Pie:  Read more 

More Cunningham Follies

I think this is pretty fun.

With the excesses of their Watergate and Potomac houseboat parties, it was as if Wilkes and Foggo brought with them from their modest childhoods (they played high-school football together) an almost Hollywood idea of Washington power. Meanwhile, Wilkes and Wade amassed hundreds of millions of dollars in defense and intelligence contracts. The Prospect has already reported how a Wilkes-controlled company, Archer Logistics, received a small 2003 contract from the CIA to provide bottled water to CIA personnel in Iraq with the help of Foggo. Further reporting indicates that Wilkes was in negotiations in early 2005 to receive a far larger CIA contract, worth a few hundred million dollars, to operate a covert “proprietary” airline. A source tells the Prospect that under this arrangement, “Third-party [airline] companies would be purchased, brought under the new [Wilkes] corporate umbrella, and staffed with new Agency pilots.” The deal fell apart, according to this source, after Wilkes’ role in the Cunningham corruption case came to light.  Read more