Time: Duke Wore a Wire
Can you feel the panic?
A story has just gone up on Time's site reporting that Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-Cal.) wore a wire while he was cooperating with prosecutors.
...sources tell TIME that ex-Rep. Cunningham wore a wire to help investigators gather evidence against others just before copping his own plea.Sources familiar with the situation say Cunningham, a California Republican who pleaded guilty Nov. 28 to taking $2.4 million in bribes -- including a yacht, a Rolls Royce and a 19th Century Louis-Philippe commode -- from a defense contractor, wore a wire at some point during the short interval between the moment he began cooperating with the feds and the announcement of his guilty plea on Nov. 28.
Given the apparently limited time period that Duke was wired, this might not be quite the bombshell it seems. But who knows - there's ample speculation that Duke was just one cog in a corrupt defense appropriations machine. This might be just the thing to blow that open.
Ha ha hahahahahahahah!!!!!!!
hahahahahah!!!!!! A hahahaha.... can't stop laughing!!!!!
January 6, 2006 12:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
January 6, 2006 12:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
6/12/2005 Copley News Service reports defense contractor took a $700,000 bath on the "Duke's" house
7/1/2005 FBI searches the Dukester's Rancho Santa Fe house and the offices of MZM, Inc.
11/28/2005 The Dukester pleads guilty
Anybody who got caught on a wire should definitely be able to convince a jury they were insane.
January 6, 2006 12:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
January 6, 2006 12:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
Whoa! I'm thinking lots of soiled pants.
January 6, 2006 12:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hrmmmmmm....
Just a thought, something that would really cause lawmakers make a run on Depends at the Wal-Mart. If Abramoff was cooperating with authorities for 18 months before his plea deal, did he wear a wire anytime in those 18 months?
Inquiring minds want to know!
January 6, 2006 12:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
I love it when these things go sour and the cockroaches start turning on each other...
January 6, 2006 1:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
Jack Abramoff, who was also wired on those trips to Scotland!
This is too much fun.
January 6, 2006 1:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
i was just watching a thing on the history channel about that fbi informant who was with the kkk on a thing where they shot at some freedom riders (i think, i wasn't paying real close attention), and that he claimed he only "pretended" to fire his gun.
the thought of abramof saying he was just "pretending" to participate in the GOP plot to destroy democracy gives me a hearty chuckle.
January 6, 2006 2:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
oh my...
January 6, 2006 2:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
Maybe Ney is wearing one right now.
January 6, 2006 6:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
You think he'll get Pussy Bonpensiero'd?
January 6, 2006 11:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
So, please, please let the duke news keep flowing. Work has been fun the last couple of months. I have been actually watched this guy squirm in his seat, as I regale other co-workers with Duke news.
January 7, 2006 5:50 AM | Reply | Permalink
Be careful what you wish for, the "Duke" wore a wire to get Abramoff who in turn wore a wire to get the rest. While there will be alot of possible Republican targets to get y'all salivating, I've heard a couple of big time "D's" names being whispered too (Ried, Durbin, Johnson...)
January 7, 2006 6:48 AM | Reply | Permalink
Well, I'm sure there are some Dems at fault too. But basically this a Republican scandal for the most part. Abramoff was head of the Young Repubs at one time, etc.
January 7, 2006 8:38 AM | Reply | Permalink
SFC, If the Dems were in on it, then they need to pay the price too. It's looking more and more like we need a thorough housecleaning on both sides of the aisle. I'd like to see jail time for all involved, regardless of party.
January 7, 2006 9:14 AM | Reply | Permalink
Ronald Reagan was a Democrat and a Union leader too, before he was saved... what's your point?
January 7, 2006 11:28 AM | Reply | Permalink
Glen Cove is home to the Russian delegation where the Russians maintain an estate. Glen Cove is also home to Tom Suozzi, the Nassau County chief executive who aspires to be governor of NYS. The Suozzi family has been active in Glen Cove politics for years.
Newsday repeatedly has referred to Adam Kidan as being from Glen Cove. I found one reference to Kidan as being associated with a Glen Cove real estate firm named, I think, Chartwell but that was it.
Thomas Kontogiannis, the man who bought Cunningham's boat for an inflated price, is also named in the media as being from Glen Cove yet at least as of a few years ago, he lived in Old Brookville, a wealthy village also in Nassau County not far rom Glen Cove.
A Georgina Kontogiannis from Glen Cove has made a number of contributions to various Republican politicians over the last few years. I think the same Georgia Kontogiannis owns a breeding farm in NYS, G Lack Farms.
If Georgia is married to Thomas Kontogiannis, Mr. Kontogiannis is a very wealthy man and in NYS racing circles, he would not be the only crook. Carl Lizza Jr., and Chester Broman are also "real estate devlopers" into racing. Both men are long-term associates of Bush Pioneer, Charles A. Gargano.
Kontogiannis was the one picked up by Duke Cunningham by plane in Greece and flew to Saudi Arabia with him. That business has yet to be disclosed. I found one reference online to Kontogiannis having business in Russia but I'm not sure if the information was reliable.
January 7, 2006 11:44 AM | Reply | Permalink
This thing reeks with Republican hubris because they control the three branches of government so there are no effective checks and balances until the Dems get Congress and/or the White House. Tom Delay is not going to attempt to regain his majority leader post because he's up to this stuff to his eyeballs and he knows it.
January 7, 2006 11:52 AM | Reply | Permalink
Interesting -
On Friday, January 6, it is revealed that at some point prior to his public admission of guilt, Duke Cunningham wore a wire.
The identity of those with whom the San Diego congressman met while wearing the wire remains unclear, and is the source of furious—and nervous—speculation by congressional Republicans.
On Saturday, January 7, Tom Delay steps down as House majority leader.
Coincidence?
January 7, 2006 9:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
airs, aloofness, audacity, bluster, braggadocio, brass, cheek, chutzpah, conceit, conceitedness, contemptuousness, crust, disdain, disdainfulness, ego, egotism, gall, haughtiness, hauteur, high-handedness, imperiousness, insolence, loftiness, nerve, ostentation, overbearance, pomposity, pompousness, presumption, pretension, pretentiousness, pride, priggishness, scornfulness, self-importance, self-love, smugness, superciliousness, swagger, vanity
try and add a little flair to the mantra.
January 7, 2006 10:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
Since this is way beyond Delay now, not that we should let up on him, but maybe you can change the subtitle to:
---Auction House:
All Hail the Highest Bidder
Pricing the Imperial Presidency
Democracy on the Auction Block
Craven Congress in the Crosshairs
Congresscritter Corruption-Watch
You get the idea!
January 8, 2006 7:54 AM | Reply | Permalink
Glen Cove sounds pretty juicy as a story.
Russian Mafia in bed with Congress?
January 8, 2006 8:10 AM | Reply | Permalink
Wallace: Bullshit!
THis is the GOP's desparate attempt to keep this shitstorm from overwhelming them.
The made-up claim is that Reid, inter alia, received donations from "Abramoff clients" -- which is to say any individiual, company or PAC that Taurig represented. If we're talking about who will or won't give back money from "Abramoff clients," then BC04 probably would need to refund the better part of the quarter billion dollars it raised, rather than the measly 6k its coughing up.
Yet the GOP non-sense line is that Reid et al should "give back the Abramoff money."
Not Reid nor any Democrat received a dime from Abramoff, from any of his PACS or from any of his "charities" through which he funneled unregulated, off-shore bribes.
January 8, 2006 8:42 AM | Reply | Permalink
Glen Cove sounds pretty juicy as a story.
Russian Mafia in bed with Congress?
That's not a new inference, but it may finally make the light of day long enough for people to start hollering about it. Doesn't anyone remember the Stillwater Mine in Montana? In 2003 Congress allowed Russia to purchase a majority in that mine, which is the only palladium mine in the U.S. The world's leading nickel and palladium mines are currently in Russia, so now the Russians have a pretty tight control on that resource.
Palladium is finding itself in great demand as a catalyst for motor exhaust pollution control. There was no major fuss and there was no usual process of examination for the purchase to be swept through so easily. No fuss, and voila, the Russians had something they wanted very badly. Wasn't even a blip on the radar of the media.
Additionally, Congress would like to keep Russia calm, because of the oil thing. ;)
January 8, 2006 12:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ive been a moderate Democrat for a long time, and I hope this straw ( and the million other straws ) breaks this open, but I dont care if it's Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians, or Moon People, if an elected offical has taken money/favors in exchange for their vote, they should be kicked out of the government and tried for treason, up to and including the president.
January 10, 2006 9:04 AM | Reply | Permalink
Sure, and I say let them go down. Although part of the salivation response that this story elicits has to do with the fact that it is, by and large, a Republican scandal - and part of the general outrage at places like this is at the seemingly endemic corruption in the national Republican leadership - the moral indigation, to the extent that it is more than posturing, extends across the aisles. If you're in Congress and you were in on the game, I hope you face the consequences.
January 7, 2007 7:56 PM | Reply | Permalink