Remember "Duke-Stir," the bribe to former Rep. Duke Cunningham that brought him down? Here are some remarkable facts, courtesy of ThinkProgress:
– Washington D.C. defense contractor Mitchell Wade pled guilty last February to paying then-California Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham more than $1 million in bribes.
– Wade’s company MZM Inc. received its first federal contract from the White House. The contract, which ran from July 15 to August 15, 2002, stipulated that Wade be paid $140,000 to “provide office furniture and computers for Vice President Dick Cheney.”
– Two weeks later, on August 30, 2002, Wade purchased a yacht for $140,000 for Duke Cunningham. The boat’s name was later changed to the “Duke-Stir.” Said one party to the sale: “I knew then that somebody was going to go to jail for that…Duke looked at the boat, and Wade bought it — all in one day. Then they got on the boat and floated away.”
– According to Cunningham’s sentencing memorandum, the purchase price of the boat had been negotiated earlier that summer, around the same time the White House contact was signed.
To recap, the White House awarded a one-month, $140,000 contract to a criminal contractor who never held a federal contract. Two weeks after he got paid, that same contractor used a cashier’s check for exactly that amount to buy a boat for an imprisoned congressman at a price that had been pre-negotiated.
Obviously MZM bribed Cunningham with the yacht. But it's very hard to figure out why Dick Cheney's office provided the cash for the bribe.
Perhaps that's exactly the question U.S. Attorney Carol Lam was asking - and why she was fired.
Senate Judiciary Chairman Pat Leahy promised to subpoena Karl Rove on Thursday. To get to the bottom of this scandal, Leahy may soon have to subpoena Dick Cheney.
