This is just utterly astonishing, unbelievable, unimaginable . . . . this has got to be the biggest and most ballsy, shameless payoff arrangment in the entire history of this country. Seriously, has there been anything comparable to this? Ever, by any political party? The total amount that he admitted funnelling was $163
million in just a period of two years, to just one defense contractor, who then gets a chunk of that money back to Cunningham in various ways, e.g. by buying his house at a ridiculously inflated price. I'm dumbfounded that Cunningham could have done this at this scale and gotten away with it for so long.
So the questions this raises are: Why didn't other lawmakers on the appropriations committees see that the same defense company was getting contracts over and over again? How did Cunningham ensure that "his" defense contractor get so much money, for so many vaguely worded projects? What oversights are there in the defense appropriations process? WHY WAS IT SO EASY FOR HIM TO DO THIS? The fact that he got caught is not relevant, it wasn't any evidence from the appropriations committee that caught him, it was his house sale that gave him away.
It seems to me that there needs to be a serious "accounting" of the oversight procedures involved in defense appropriations in this country. If Cunningham could do something like this at this unbelievable scale, then I'm sure there are many others doing the same thing at a smaller scale.
It is detestable that somebody at this high a level of government could have conceived and carried out such a thing, but it should be deeply disturbing that it was even
possible. It really makes you wonder how deep the corruption really goes in our government. I hope this story and those like it sends record numbers of voters to the polls next November.
The balls this guy had . . . . . .
