December 7, 2005
The Next Scandal's Coming to a District Near You
By Ruben
Navarrette Jr.
SAN DIEGO
-- In most U.S cities, public officials are commonly referred
to as ``the honorable'' this or that. But here in San Diego, they're
often referred to simply as ``the defendant in the above named
action.''
The U.S.
attorney's office, the FBI and the Securities and Exchange Commission
have separate and ongoing investigations into the city's pension
scandal, which resulted in a nearly $2 billion shortfall in the
municipal employees' pension fund. Six former members of the pension
board have been charged with corruption and are being prosecuted
by the district attorney's office. A mayor resigned earlier this
year after Time magazine named him as one of the three
worst mayors in the country. Two former San Diego city councilmen
were convicted of corruption charges; one had his conviction set
aside by a judge but may be retried, the other was sentenced to
21 months in prison.
And now
there's former Rep. Randy ``Duke'' Cunningham, who through his
misdeeds has earned his own wing in the Corrupt Politicians Hall
of Fame. How much does it cost to buy a congressman? Thanks to
some good, solid digging by the San Diego Union-Tribune,
and later by the U.S. attorney's office in San Diego, we now know
the figure to be in the vicinity of $2.4 million.
That's how
much Cunningham has admitted taking in bribes from two defense
contractors. In exchange, he helped channel to them tens of millions
of dollars in government contracts from his perch on the House
Appropriations subcommittee which oversees defense spending.
Cunningham
also admitted to evading more than a $1 million in taxes on the
ill-gotten goods.
For his
sins, the 63-year-old Republican is looking at a possible 10 years
in prison.
It was all
spelled out in a guilty plea worked out with federal prosecutors
in the office of U.S. Attorney Carol Lam, who called Cunningham's
transgression ``a crime of unprecedented magnitude and extraordinary
audacity.''
It was all
that, and more. To get a sense of the enormity of this scandal,
consider this. The folks who keep the historical record for Congress
say that, since the formation of the republic, nearly 10,000 individuals
have served and fewer than a dozen have been convicted of taking
bribes.
And not
one of them made off with anything close to what Cunningham pocketed.
In the Abscam bust of the early 1980s, the average bribe per congressman
was less than $50,000. In the 1990s, Rep. Dan Rostenkowski, D-Ill.,
accepted about $500,000 in bribes, considered a tremendous amount
at the time.
But $2.4
million? That means Cunningham will go down as the most corrupt
member of Congress in the history of the institution. That's saying
a lot.
It's tempting
to look at a scandal like this as being about a flawed individual.
But it's also about a flawed system. Those flaws go beyond the
obvious, such as the corruptive influence of the rivers of money
that flow through Washington, or the startling fact that one member
of Congress, sitting on the right committee with the right amount
of influence with the right government agency, can steer millions
of dollars of taxpayer money into the coffers of private firms
-- firms that might reciprocate by showering a politician with
favors such as expensive meals and gifts, resort vacations, unlimited
use of a corporate jet or yacht, and the like.
There are
also the special interests that operate beneath the radar. There
is no excusing Cunningham, but Americans should be just as outraged
over those members of Congress who are willing to take up whatever
cause is dictated to them by those who contribute to their campaigns:
teachers unions who give money to Democrats to fend off vouchers;
the medical and pharmaceutical lobbies that give to Republicans
to push tort reform or fight off attempts to provide low-cost
prescription drugs.
The old
saying goes that pigs get fat while hogs get slaughtered. Cunningham
was a hog. But there are, you can be sure, plenty of pigs still
out there. That's what we should be worrying about.
The friends
of Duke Cunningham have other worries. Legal experts have speculated
that one reason the plea agreement seemed to come together so
quickly is because Cunningham has started naming names.
Former San
Diego District Attorney Paul Pfingst told The Union-Tribune
that he wonders ``whether there are other congressmen under investigation
and whether Cunningham has any information on other congressmen."
Don't be
surprised if this scandal, or one like it, comes to a congressional
district near you.
©
2005, The San Diego Union-Tribune
