Breaking on CNN: Randy "Duke" Cunningham will not seek re-election

[maddezmom]

:D will look for link.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/APNEWSALERT?SITE=MNMAN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2005-07-14-17-53-58

thanks to IChing for the link

more links:

Cunningham To Step Down At End Of Term

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, R-Calif., who is under investigation for his dealings with a defense contractor, will not seek re-election.

The eight-term lawmaker announced his decision at California State University at San Marcos on Thursday afternoon at 3 p.m.

Cunningham, a Vietnam War veteran and eight-term lawmaker, has been shadowed by questions concerning his relationship with Mitchell Wade, the founder of MZM Inc., a defense firm.

Wade purchased Cunningham's 3,826-square-foot house north of San Diego in 2003, then put it back on the market and eventually took a $700,000 loss when he resold it a year later. During that span, home prices in San Diego County rose an average of nearly 25 percent.

At the same time, MZM Inc. was increasing its federal contracting business.

more:http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/4724942/detail.html?rss=dgo&psp=news

Calif. Congressman Won't Seek Re-Election
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050714/ap_on_go_co/congressman_s_house_3

[malaise]

1. One by one

they'll be exposed.

[ewagner]

2. I sort of expected that

It would have been better if he resigned but that's not his style...he's got a tough-guy image to protect...Mr TopGun ya know!

[AX10]

3. He's Done with!

We won this one! Thank You God!
:dem:

[bluestateguy]

4. Is this district winnable?

Or is another bad Republican simply going to be replaced by a younger bad Republican, some little blow dried twit with the tousled hair, talking about "small government" and the "free market". Ugh!

[truthseeker1]

21. I love your description......

some little blow dried twit with the tousled hair, talking about "small government" and the "free market"

made me laugh - thanks I needed that - and glad to hear Cunningham is out. I had to sit through his machismo filled speech some 15 years ago when he recounted how Top Gun (the movie) was really about him.

[aquart]

27. That's why the Republicans wanted him out.

So they can run someone untarnished.

[mom cat]

30. Maybe they can find someone untarnished under Bush's desk,

right next to the WMD.

[aquart]

41. They already have someone.

I'm not sure of the name. Schwartzman? Anyway, my sister's in the district and she bitterly thinks he's electable.

[hang a left]

32. Not a chance.

Repuke Central.

[aquart]

42. And yet my sister lives there.

And remember who REALLY won the mayor's race no matter what they say.

San Diego is a military town. Normally a safe seat for Republicans. But my sister has a friend there whose family is generations of military. They have Seals in that family. They're sick of funerals of cousins who died in Iraq. They sat, according to my sister, around a table and discussed ...what most of us dare not even fantasize...coming to the conclusion it wasn't feasible. That they even thought about it is STUNNING. That they discussed it as a family???? Holy hannah.

Don't make old time assumptions about San Diego.

[hang a left]

48. I can only comment from my area of Escondido/Rancho Bernardo/

San Marcos area and seriously its wall to wall freepers. I am surrounded.

[punpirate]

5. Kind of hard to mount a really effective campaign...

... from jail. Ask Traficant. :P

[Mojambo]

6. One corrupt crook down, many more to go

And more than a few of them have D's after their name.

I hope everyone here has the stomach to go after both "ours" and theirs.

[annabanana]

31. yeah, well....THEM FIRST..

then sure, a crook is a crook

[Mojambo]

36. I'm gonna make no distinction.

No favored treatments for our own.

In fact, if our cause is indeed righteous than we should purge our own first!

[lebkuchen]

7. Yeee fucking ha!!!! Dom Perignon for all!

Cunningham and his staff are filth that need to be swept out of the corridors of power. Good riddance Floating Turds!

[KansDem]

29. Dom Perignon?!?! Is he a Democrat and can he win?

;)

[lebkuchen]

49. In Germany, a "Dom" is a Cathedral

Let's just say, Perignon is my favorite. :)

[MidwestTransplant]

8. Tough to do from a jail cell

[AlCzervik]

9. he's giving a news conference at 3:00pct, i hope he quits

becuae with his level of corruption not seeking re-election isn't good enough.

[maddezmom]

13. me thinks he could be going to the slammer

Four From Washington Yacht Club Subpoenaed In Cunningham Probe

Last Updated:
07-14-05 at 11:47AM

(AP) - Two members and two employees of a Washington, D.C., yacht club where Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham lived aboard a defense contractor's boat have been subpoenaed to testify before a federal grand jury in San Diego investigating the congressman, according to a person with knowledge of the plans.

The four who are flying to San Diego to testify Monday are the first witnesses known to be appearing before the federal panel that is gathering evidence on the eight-term Republican from Del Mar and his dealings with defense contractor MZM Inc.


~snip~

Cunningham lived part-time at the Capital Yacht Club aboard a 42-foot yacht owned by Mitchell Wade, founder of the defense firm MZM Inc. Coast Guard records show Wade bought the boat from Scott F. Schramm, who is listed as the yacht club's rear commodore. Schramm did not return a message left seeking comment.

The congressman has said that instead of rent, he has paid at least $13,000 to cover dock fees and other expenses at the club since April 2004. Cunningham has yet to make good on his promise last month to divulge additional records on the boat payments. Living on Wade's boat for free would violate congressional ethics rules.


more:http://www.kfmb.com/story.php?id=17752

[AlCzervik]

15. did you see the name of the boat? "Duke stir"

[TahitiNut]

10. His Swiss bank accounts must be full enough.

... to pay his legal fees. :puke:

[0007]

11. Put the cuffs on "Puke" Cunningham and get him out of my sight!

[Lone_Star_Dem]

12. Another one bites the dust

:)

[deadparrot]

14. Alright, Cunningham constituents...get to work finding a viable Dem!

:D

[livetohike]

17. We have one!

It's Francine Busby.

http://www.busbyforcongress.com/

She ran against him in 2004.

[neuvocat]

18. Someone like Susan Davis.

She rooted out Brian Bilbray pretty good and clean in my district.

[Dickie Flatt]

16. And that's the end of that one.

[Dickie Flatt]

19. Give to Busby, Dem running for Duke's seat

This is our chance.

[zara]

20. Politicians span the spectrum of humanity....Cunningham is from the dumb

end of the spectrum. Getting elected isn't necessarily a mark of intelligence. In his case, he proves they aren't even correlated. His breaches of common ethics are not even sugar coated with plausible deniability. They are just abuses of power, and sale of office, plain and simple.

[IChing]

22. Breaking...Duke Cunningham to retire after term

AP News Alert

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Two Republican sources say California Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, under investigation, intends to announce he will retire when the congressional term ends.

© 2005 The Associated Press.
<<<<snip
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/APNEWSALERT?SITE=MNMAN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2005-07-14-17-53-58

[jasmeel]

23. Do you mean "retire"?n/t

[sniffa]

24. another seat for us?

i have no idea the ideoLogy of his district. :shrug:

[IChing]

26. Very right wing part of California --

representing the 50th Congressional District for California

[cascadiance]

35. His district does now include parts of La Jolla

that are in UCSD after 2000 redistricting. With a newer election on us and no incumbent, I think it might be closer than one might think. Hey, you have people like me who moved into it since 2000 too!

[Zorra]

25. Another lying, cheating CORRUPT REPUBLICAN goes down.

Another rare victory for democracy in this dark time when greedy, conscienceless, morally depraved, Machiavellian fascists control our government.
:woohoo:

[rainbow4321]

28. YAY! Nah-nah-nah-nah, Nah-nah-nah-nah, hey, hey...

GOODBYE.....

One down, so many more to go (oohhhh, Kaarrrllll...)







:bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

[leftchick]

33. Did you see his yacht?? The "Duke Stir"

:rofl:

I hope he thinks of it in prison...



A 42-foot yacht named Duke Stir is shown docked at the Capitol Yacht Club, Saturday, July 2, 2005 in Washington. Federal authorities intensified their investigation into Rep. Randy 'Duke' Cunningham's dealings with a defense contractor by simultaneously serving search warrants on both coasts - one for his California home and another for a Duke Stir, a yacht where he has stayed while in Washington, D.C. (AP Photo/Haraz Ghanbari)

[maddezmom]

38. check out the before and afters of his home

before:



The "Union-Tribune" reported on Monday that defense contractor Mitchell Wade took a $700,000 loss on a Del Mar home he purchased from Cunningham.

after:


Cunningham paid $2.55 million for a Rancho Santa Fe home in 2003, a sale protesters said was made possible by the defense contractor's willingness to pay well above market value for Cunningham's old home.

[leftchick]

39. o m g ...

:wow:

[cascadiance]

34. I wonder if the FBI, etc. will "call off the dogs" now...

Now that he's "out of the way" to let another Republican run for that district. One sensed that the Rethugs were wanting to get him and his "baggage" outed early cause they knew that he was going to screw them out of a seat, and he'll also probably bring down a few other Rethugs with him (Katherine Harris in Florida, Goode in Virgina, and who knows who else).

Now they might just want to "keep quiet" about things and hope it goes away. Probably told Cunningham that too to get him to "retire".

[WhiteTara]

37. Surprise Surprise! I wonder if he knows

that he will be in jail and CAN'T seek re-election?

[gratuitous]

40. Isn't it customary to say why you're retiring?

I guess old Randy isn't quite the macho stud he'd like to imagine himself to be. A little too hot, so the Top Gun skedaddles out of the kitchen. No explanation, nothing.

Chickenshit pasty-faced corrupt Republican asshole. But I repeat myself.

[SHRED]

43. Hi Folks...This is my District

Busby will have a great chance. She did very well last time around.
http://www.francinebusby2004.org/

I don't know what will happen.
There are lots of Repuke bucks floating around in my 50th District, yet the coastal communities are much more liberal (yeah Encinitas!!).

[are_we_united_yet]

44. Damn!

Poor guy.

[wicket]

45. Hahahahahahaha@

:rofl:

[Mr_Spock]

46. Yippie - just a couple hundred more to go!

:D

[leesa]

47. Oh what a huge sacrifice! He better do some time as well.

[madinmaryland]

50. Embattled Congressman Will Not Run in '06 "Cunningham"

WASHINGTON, July 14 - Under investigation for a real estate deal and his ties to a military contractor, Representative Randy Cunningham, an eight-term Republican, announced Thursday that he would not seek re-election next year in his district in the San Diego area.

"I do not believe that a political campaign in the midst of such an investigation is in the best interests of my family or my constituents," Mr. Cunningham said at a hastily called news conference at which he denied any wrongdoing but acknowledged poor judgment.

The decision by Mr. Cunningham, a conservative and former Navy pilot active on military and intelligence issues, makes him the first lawmaker to be claimed by a swirl of ethics accusations that have engulfed the House this year.

Representative Tom DeLay, the majority leader, has come under intense scrutiny over his travel as well as his ties to the lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who is the subject of Congressional and federal inquiries. Other lawmakers of both parties have raced to file or correct their own travel records in light of the focus on Mr. DeLay, a Texas Republican.

..snip

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/15/politics/15cunningham.html

[K-W]

51. Good riddence. EOM

[AlCzervik]

52. he should quit right now and not just not run again.

[northzax]

53. chalk up another scalp

for Josh Marshall.

[Raster]

54. In other words, "I'm not going to run again because I can't stand the

scrutiny. If someone takes a real good look at my financial affairs, I'm going to prison."

Ah yes, orange jumpsuits. This season's oh-so-stylish g.o.p. attire.

[SHRED]

55. Rep. Cunningham won't seek re-election amid contractor probe

Well of course not.
Hey Randy...YOU'RE NOT GOING TO BE ABLE TO RUN FOR OFFICE FROM INSIDE THE PEN ANYWAY!

:spray:

____________

Rep. Cunningham won't seek re-election amid contractor probe

Thursday, July 14, 2005; Posted: 7:44 p.m. EDT (23:44 GMT)

(CNN) -- Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, R-California, under federal investigation over his relationship with a defense contractor, announced Thursday that he won't seek a ninth term in Congress next year but will finish the remainder of his current term.

While insisting he did nothing illegal or dishonorable, the former top gun Navy pilot admitted he showed "poor judgment" in 2003 when he sold his home in Del Mar, California, to a friend, Mitchell Wade, the founder of MZM Inc., a large defense contractor.

Cunningham sits on a powerful defense appropriations subcommittee that approves spending for defense programs and has said he advocated on MZM's behalf in seeking government contracts.

"I should have given more thought to how such transactions might look to those who don't know me," Cunningham said at a news conference in San Marcos, in his San Diego-area district. "It pains me beyond words that I have jeopardized your trust."

>>>>> http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/07/14/congress.cunningham/index.html

[WhiteTara]

56. good story albeit a dupe of an earlier report

[fujiyama]

57. HAHAHAHA

This guy is such a corrupt piece of shit. I remember him supporting the Swifties during the campaign.