Thursday, May 04, 2006

A Little More Sex. . .

from Josh Marshall--

The Cunningham scandal keeps getting tawdrier: "As the Jack Abramoff scandal shuffles into one of its occasional lulls and lobbying reform bills stumble to a vote on the Hill, there’s a new scandal circling beneath the Capitol’s already choppy waters. And, not to frighten you, but it starts with sex and disgraced former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham (R-Calif.).

Ever since last June, when The San Diego Union-Tribune published the Duke Cunningham shady-house-sale story that eventually landed him in prison, rumors have swirled about rollicking bacchanals contractors threw for Duke and others as part of their efforts to secure lucrative defense and intelligence contracts. Hints of the parties have even cropped up in published reports. A December 2005 article in the Union-Tribune, for instance, intriguingly noted that in his efforts to entertain lawmakers alleged Cunningham briber Brent Wilkes ran a Capitol Hill “hospitality suite, with several bedrooms. . .”

Wilkes also reportedly had a helper in putting together his shindigs, and that was Chris Baker, the president of a D.C. limo outfit called Shirlington Limousine & Transportation. His job was to ferry the revelers to Wilkes’s hospitality suites. . ."

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