Molly Ivins: Pigging out on pork

[Dudley_DUright]

The stirring tale of Randy "Duke" Cunningham, congressman and bon vivant, becomes more entertaining by the day, and it is far more instructive than another case of a missing white female.

True, Duke Cunningham is merely an obscure Republican from San Diego (Crow Eaten Here: In a recent column, I said Cunningham was in charge of the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, whereas actually he is only a member thereof... apologies. He is also on the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.) On the other hand, the whole tale is so... so prototypical, so archetypal, so (even though I keep promising not to use the word) paradigmatic.

Cunningham was a decorated pilot in Vietnam who has oft campaigned on the claim that he is the original model for Top Gun. In 2003, he sold his house in Del Mar, a very upscale town north of San Diego. The buyer was Mitchell Wade, a defense contractor, who paid $1.675 million. Wade later resold the house at a $700,000 loss.

Now, either this makes Wade the only person in recent history to lose money on a San Diego real estate deal, or the guy paid way too much for the house.

more...

http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?itemid=19313

[Catfight]

1. The corruption is swallowing the US. Molly is right on again. nt

[giant_robot]

2. Eisenhower's warning about the military-industrial complex...

...becomes more prophetic by the day. Such sad times for our country.

[stevebreeze]

3. It's hard to find any aspect of what the gov has f'ed up without ties to $

We spend so much time and resources keeping the status quo, we will soon be so far behind the rest of the world it isn't funny.

We need campaign finance reform before we can undo much of the damage the Bush administration has wrought.

[WhiteTara]

4. once again Molly tells it like it is!

:kick: