DeLay defends Cunningham's home sale

[Robbien]

House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) yesterday defended Rep. Duke Cunningham (R-Calif.) after calls from congressional Democrats to investigate the Republican appropriator for selling his San Diego home to a defense contractor whose firm had received $65 million in federal funds in 2004. “Duke Cunningham is a hero,” DeLay said during a press briefing Tuesday. “He is an honorable man of high integrity.”

Cunningham sold his home in 2003 to Mitchell Wade, president of MZM Inc., a Nevada-based defense contractor that specializes in security and intelligence-gathering technology. The company lost $700,000 after it resold the property eight months later, the San Diego Union-Tribune first reported Sunday.

At the briefing, DeLay also defended Democratic Rep. John Murtha (Pa.), who was the subject of a Los Angeles Times article questioning the lobbying activities of Murtha’s brother in connection with passage of last year’s $417 billion defense spending bill.

The article said Murtha’s brother, Robert “Kit” Murtha, is a senior partner at a Washington lobbying firm that represented 10 companies that received a combined $20.8 million in contracts from the defense bill.

“I know that John Murtha is an honorable man,” DeLay said during the briefing, adding that he did not know any details of the article. “He is a man of great integrity.”

http://www.thehill.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/Frontpage/061505/delay.html

[Roland99]

1. If I were Cunnigham, I'd want DeLay to STFU!!

:)

[democrat in Tallahassee]

2. kinda like the kiss of death isn't it? to be endorsed by bugman?

[acmejack]

4. Nah, he is Topgun

Quite literally. First commander of the school, I think he was the last American ace as well.

[leesa]

11. Who gives a shit. He's an immoral criminal.

[acmavm]

3. Having Tom DeLay fvouch for your 'honesty' would have to be a lot like

being smacked in the head with an axe because you have a misquito bite on the cheek that itches.

You know that rather than help, it's gonna hurt. Big time, possibly fatally. Just ask Jack Abramhoff.

And we all know what a man of character ol' Tom is. He's they type who would probably start a charity for kids so that he could lauder illegal campaign donations through it, don't you think.

[Don Claybrook]

5. Thug says other thugs not thugs

How nice. I wonder what Ted Bundy thought about John Wayne Gacy.

[elehhhhna]

6. Can you say MONEY LAUNDERING?

[damntexdem]

7. Oh, well, if Tom DeLay will defend him, he must be innocent ...

of any integrity, anyway.

[geek tragedy]

8. What, G. Gordon Liddy was unavailable for comment? eom

[PsN2Wind]

9. So, a company that specializes in security

and intelligence-gathering loses money in one of the hottest real-estate markets in the country. Funny, Huh?

[leesa]

10. Oh that's rich! Duke the Dunce is my former Rep. After redistricting

I got the Menu Moron, Duncan Hunter. I'm so blessed!

[dArKeR]

12. Guns, drugs, religious Nazis, and lobbyists!

[rainbow4321]

13. Yacht 'Duke Stir' owned by defense contractor docked at Cunningham's slip

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2005/06/16/news/top_stories/2005-6-16-22-58.txt

A defense contractor whose real estate dealings with Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham have raised ethical questions has another connection to Cunningham: He owns a boat docked at a Washington yacht club ---- a boat on which Cunningham stays while working in the Capitol.

"I am putting information and records together so that you will know how much I pay to stay there, and you will see that everything we've done is appropriate," read the brief statement, which was e-mailed by Cunningham's chief of staff, Harmony Allen.

Now, another connection between Cunningham and Wade is raising questions --- a boat owned by Wade and occupied at least part-time by Cunningham. U.S. Coast Guard records show that Wade owns the 42-foot, 34-ton boat, which bears the name "Duke Stir."


An expert on ethics in government said Wednesday that the living arrangement would be unethical only if Cunningham is not paying rent. "Then it is inappropriate because this person wants something from him and is apparently getting millions of dollars in federal contracts," said Bob Stern, president of Los Angeles-based Center for Governmental Studies, a nonpartisan think tank that studies campaign finance.

[cascadiance]

14. Time to push for 50th district's new congress person!