It was “the biggest case of congressional corruption ever documented.” Shocking in its scope and in the brazennessof its conspirators, the Duke Cunningham bribery caper is a tale not only of individual malfeasance that would make a grifter cry, but also of a culture in the nation’s capital that threatens the integrity of government itself.
The saga of former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham of California from small-town boy to war hero to congressman to convicted felon is told in a new book by the Pulitzer Prize-winning reporters who broke the story.
Reporters Marcus Stern, Jerry Kammer and George E. Condon Jr. of Copely News Service and Deal Calbreath of the San Diego Union Tribune collaborated in writing “The Wrong Stuff: The Extraordinary Saga of Randy ‘Duke’ Cunningham, the Most Corrupt Congressman Ever Caught” — a maddening, jaw-clenching look at what has become of virtue and honesty in Washington.
For indeed, the story of Cunningham’s road to prison cannot be told without highlighting the use and abuse of earmarks, defined by the authors in the chapter devoted to explaining the practice as “a bit of spending that was not requested by the executive branch but is added to a spending bill out of public sight by a member of Congress who is permitted to remain anonymous.”
The Republicans routinely used earmarks to raise campaign cash by earmarking projects supported by one or more of the legions of lobbyists bedeviling the appropriations process, who would then return the favor by ponying up at election time.
Tracing the history of earmarks using as an example transportation appropriations, the authors shock the reader by showing an astonished President Ronald Reagan vetoing to no avail the highway bill of 1987 that contained 121 earmarks, through the 1991 bill that contained 538, all the way to the 2005 measure that featured a nauseating 6,373, costing taxpayers an additional $24.2 billion.
Cunningham’s strategy to enrich himself was devilishly simple: Use earmarks to steer federal contracts to his cronieswho would then kickback monies in bribes. This was proven thanks to the famous “Bribery Menu” where the congressman actually wrote out on House stationery how much of a bribe he would accept for each earmark he was able to push through the appropriations process.
There is a question not answered by the authors but which dangles in front of the reader throughout the narrative. Were earmarks simply a catalyst for Cunningham’s already warped sense of entitlement? Or is the practice itself so riddled with loopholes that the temptation to engage in self-aggrandizing actions is so seductive that widespread corruption becomes the norm?
Sadly, the Democrats seem hell bent on trying to answer that question for us. Sailing into majority status by running against the GOP “culture of corruption,” which included charges of widespread abuse of earmarks, Democrats have since turned their backs on promised reforms and instead have adopted rules that guarantee a continuation of the practice.
In the House Appropriations Committee, Chairman Rep. David Obey, D-Wis., has made it clear that anonymous earmarking will continue, as will the practice of including the extra spending in the House-Senate conference report — behind closed doors with no debate whatsoever on the efficacy of the earmark while the bill is under consideration on the floor.
Obey’s arrogant response to questions about abandoning a major campaign pledge of the Democrats? “I don’t give a damn if people criticize me or not.”
Indeed, there have been many supporters of earmarks in both parties who have basically told taxpayers with questions about specific spending requests to take a hike. Here’s what Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., said of the Porkbusters citizens group that has exposed many of these spending outrages: “I’m getting damn tired of hearing from them. They have been nothing but trouble since Katrina.” Clearly, it is a sensitive subject for both parties on Capitol Hill.
At the moment, reform of the earmarking process seems dead in the water. This almost guarantees that Cunningham will not be the last congressman to resign in disgrace as a consequence of a system that almost begs to be exploited for personal gain.
As Oscar Wilde said: “The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it.”
Alas, it would seem likely our lawmakers will take such advice to heart rather than resisting the urge to feather their own nests at the expense of the people who elected them.
Rick Moran is proprietor of the Right Wing Nuthouse blog.
