Culture Of Corruption

As if the Mark Foley scandal wasn't bad enough, there is more bad news for the corrupt Republicans in Congress. Apparently, Foley wasn't the only Republican member of Congress who raised "red flags" that were ignored by the majority party.

Bribery scandal's scope highlighted

The investigation found no evidence of criminal activity by other lawmakers or committee aides, according to the report. It describes a permissive environment in which staffers ignored or failed to act on "red flags" surrounding Cunningham's unusual funding requests.

According to the investigation, Cunningham repeatedly pressured aides to insert special funding provisions, known as "earmarks," designed to enrich business officials who were paying the lawmaker millions of dollars in bribes.

Over a five-year period, the report said, Cunningham inserted language into spending bills adopted by the intelligence panel that provided "approximately $70 [million]-$80 million in funding" for those companies. The committee oversees about $40 billion in spending on U.S. spy agencies. Most of the earmarks went to companies run by businessman Brent Wilkes of California and his former associate, Mitchell Wade, in Washington. Wilkes remains under investigation, and Wade pleaded guilty in February to charges.

The fact that Randy "Duke" Cunningham was corrupt is by no means new news. (He plead guilty to bribery charges last year.) This is merely more evidence of how Republican corruption is ignored or overlooked by the Republican leaders in Congress.